Justice PS Narasimha, the Supreme Court judge on Friday recused from hearing a plea filed by Meru Cabs because earlier he had appeared as a lawyer for Uber India in another case.
A Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Narasimha agreed to list the matter on May 9 before a Bench of which Justice Narasimha is not a member.
When the matter came up for hearing today, senior advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for Meru Cabs, told the Bench that Justice Narasimha had appeared for Uber before while adding that he has no objection to the Bench hearing the matter but said that it was his duty to point out this fact.
Justice Narasimha thanked Chidambaram for bringing this aspect to his notice and refused from hearing the case. Justice Rao said that if the Advocate on Record had circulated a letter stating this fact, the Bench would not have spent about an hour's time studying the files yesterday.
Meru Cabs had approached the top court challenging the order of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) which dismissed its complaint alleging abuse of dominant position by Uber India.
In 2015 Meru Cabs approached the Competition Commission of India and on July 14, 2021, the CCI declined to intervene in the matter while observing that the facts and evidence on record do not establish the dominance of Uber.
The CCI had said that it does not find merit in the argument of Meru Cabs that incentives and rating the mechanism adopted by Uber for its driving partners had any Appreciable Adverse Effect on Competition (AAEC) in the market.
The National Company Appellate Tribunal on January 7, 2022, approved the CCI's order by dismissing Meru's appeal against it. Later, Meru Cabs approached the top court.
( With inputs from ANI )
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