Out-of-turn DLF appeal listing irks SC judge

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjan Gogoi Tuesday took strong exception to an out of turn listing of realtor DLF’s appeal against the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) decision to impose a `630 crore penalty on it and said he had sought an explanation from the court registry as to how it happened.

This is the first time that the appeal has been listed before Gogoi. His colleague on the bench, justice NV Ramana, was part of the earlier bench that had given interim orders on DLF’s appeal denying relief to the company. As per the Supreme Court order, the company has to deposit the entire fine amount with the SC registry.

So far, DLF has deposited `375 crore. The CCI had imposed a penalty on DLF for abusing its dominant position in the Gurgaon real estate market.

What irked justice Gogoi was that the DLF appeal was scheduled as a regular hearing matter, to be heard at length after the contesting parties complete their paper work in court, but got listed in the category of after notice matters.

The appeal was listed for final hearing. When the matter commenced, Gogoi expressed his dissatisfaction at the early listing of the case.

“My brother judge just told me what has been happening in this matter. This is just not acceptable. When people are rotting in jail for years, you don’t expect us to take up this 2014 matter. How is a regular civil appeal listed as an after notice case?” he asked senior advocate Aryama Sundaram, appearing for DLF. The senior counsel clarified his client had no role and requested the bench not to make any adverse comments against the company.

Justice Gogoi, however, said he won’t hear the matter till the issue was sorted out and said the DLF appeal would now be at the bottom of the list. “We have an issue with our registry. We have asked the officer to come and explain. We can only clean our house,” he said.