- (1.) The petitioner has preferred this writ petition seeking issuance of a writ of certiorari to quash the impugned order/notice dated 28th May, 2013 issued by the Director General, Competition Commission of India, New Delhi under Section 41 (2) read with Section 36 (2) of the Competition Act, 2002 (for short, the "Competition Act"), and further a direction has been sought for upon the Competition Commission of India to keep the said proceedings in respect of the petitioner in abeyance till the decision of Civil Appeal No. 4766 of 2010 (Rajiv Kumar Mishra v. State of U.P. and others) pending before the Supreme Court of India.
(2.) The petitioner is a company registered under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. The Company is engaged in the business of production and sale of the sugar. It has four subsidiaries; they are also carrying on the same business.
(3.) On 29th June 2009 the Government of Uttar Pradesh/respondent no. 2 published an "Expression of Interest-cum-Request for Qualification" as well as a "Request for Proposal" inviting bids for sale of 11 Sugar Mills of the Uttar Pradesh State Sugar Corporation Limited (for short, the "Sugar Corporation")/respondent no. 4, in slump sale. Pursuant to aforesaid, the petitioner also participated and was found successful bidder for 4 Sugar Mills namely, (i) Ablaz Sugar Mills Pvt. Ltd.; (ii) Elkon Sugar Mills Pvt. Ltd.; (iii) Adarsh Sugar Solutions Pvt. Ltd; and (iv) Agili Sugar India Pvt. Ltd. The respondent no 1 i.e. the Competition Commission of India (for short, the "Commission") on its own motion has initiated investigation on the allegation that in the slump sale there was bid rigging and other serious irregularities. We shall refer the details of such irregularities at appropriate place of this judgement, but before that, at this stage, it would be advantageous to refer background facts in some detail.;