Supreme Court Refuses To Interfere With CCI Penalty On Firm, Partner For Rigging Railway Tenders

The Supreme Court has refused to interfere with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's order upholding the Competition Commission of India's penalty against Jaipur based firm Hari Narayan Bihani and its partner Keshav Bihani for their involvement in a cartel to rig tenders floated by Indian Railways.

The NCLAT had upheld the CCI's penalty of 5% of the average annual turnover of M/s Hari Narayan Bihani for the preceding three financial years. It also upheld a separate penalty of 5% of the average annual income of Keshav Bihani, the firm's active partner for the preceding three financial years.

A division bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar said, "Upon hearing learned counsel for the appellant(s), we are not inclined to entertain these Civil Appeal(s). Accordingly, the Civil Appeal(s) stand dismissed."

The case originated from a leniency application filed by Jai PolyPan Private Limited, which exposed a cartel involving seven RDSO-approved vendors operating between June 10, 2015 and June 29, 2020. The vendors allegedly coordinated prices, allocated tenders, revised order-sharing arrangements and instructed non-allotted vendors to quote higher prices or withdraw bids.

Hari Narayan Bihani which was upgraded to a Part I supplier on July 4, 2019 became involved in the arrangement from July 26, 2019 to June 29, 2020. The CCI found the firm and its partner guilty of bid rigging and imposed penalties.

The NCLAT held that emails exchanged between the cartel members, allocating Hari Narayan Bihani shares ranging from 16.67% to 14.30% of orders, established its participation in the arrangement. It observed that the firm never denied receiving the emails or objected to the communications, amounting to a "tacit admission by omission".

The Supreme Court condoned the delay in filing the appeals but dismissed them, founding no grounds to interfere.

For the Petitioner: Anu Monga, Rahul Goel, Aditi Sharma, Palak Nigam, Samreedhi Gupta, Arin Srivastava, Shivendra Singh, AOR, Aryama Singh Rajput, Advocates