On Tuesday, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) dismissed an appeal filed by Sundaram Brake Linings' fair trading regulator CCI against a stay order issued by the company. NCLAT upheld that the order had been passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and said that it had been "in consultation" with other parties involved in some of the projects tendered by Indian Railways.

The CCI passed an order on July 10, 2022 that 10 companies including the appellant Sundaram Brake Linings and some of its employees cease to be anti-competitive.

The Chennai based company is the NCLATT order challenged.

The Sundaram Brake Linings petition raises several points and says that these points were wrongly included in the CCI order.

The CCI has violated the fundamental principles of competition law and evidence law by passing this order in a hasty manner.

Further, the approval was not binding on the appellant company as it had responded to only three bids and its employees were not authorized to make statements to the authorities. Sundaram Brake Linings He stated that mere receipt of information does not prove that he is a member of the cartel as the appellant's bid was not part of the Microsoft Excel sheet.

However, the Court of Appeal rejected the request. The Court of Appeals stated, "We disagree with the compelling evidence based on the cartel members' statements." He added, "The appellant is only offering information."

He also said that under the definition of cartelization in the Competition Act, an attempt at bid rigging would be sufficient to give rise to this provision.

NCLAT "The appellant claimed that he never sent any such email but only 'received' such an email and 'receipt' of an email does not constitute an ' exchange' of emails."

Sundaram Break Linings had been "receiving" emails for over five years without any complaints and never asked Cartel not to send such emails.

Sundaram Break Linings

NCLAT He added: "That in itself indicates that we agree." "We cannot conclude that appellants were never part of a cartel."

"In view of this, both the appeal and the pending appeal are dismissed."