Unifying Regulatory Approaches: An Analysis Of Competition Governance In India
Balamurali. B, Assistant Professor (Law), SMVEC Centre of Legal Education, Puducherry
ABSTRACT
The coexistence of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and sectoral regulators has significantly shaped India's regulatory landscape by promoting a fair competition while ensuring sector-specific oversight. However, the exercise of regulatory powers by these authorities at the same time has often resulted in uncertainty, overlapping interventions, procedural delays, conflicting decisions and inconsistent regulatory outcomes. Judicial pronouncements, particularly those of the Supreme Court and various High Courts, have attempted to clarify the respective roles of the CCI and sectoral regulators in case to case manner, yet the absence of a structured mechanism for institutional coordination continues to pose practical and legal challenges and discourages businesses and foreign investments.
This paper examines the interface between competition law enforcement and sectoral regulation in India by analysing the statutory frameworks. It further analyses leading judicial decisions that have shaped the regulatory relationship and identifies the persistent gaps in the existing framework. To address these challenges, the paper proposes a Model unifying the conflicts which is founded on institutional coordination, regulatory comity, and functional specialization. Under the proposed framework, the CCI would retain the exclusive authority to determine issues relating to anti-competitive conduct and market competition without excluding the sector regulators expertise. Such a collaborative mechanism seeks to eliminate regulatory uncertainty, prevent conflicting decisions, enhance administrative efficiency, and preserve the autonomy and certainty in decisions and jurisdiction of authorities
Keywords: Competition Commission of India (CCI); Sectoral Regulators; unifying the regulations; Competition Law.
