Competition Commission has rejected a complaint of alleged unfair business practices filed against Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and RailTel Corporation in relation to the Prime Minister Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme. It was alleged that the two entities indulged in anti-competitive practices regarding a project for integrated infrastructure and IT solutions under the scheme.
In an eight-page order, the Competition Commission of India said there is no prima facie case of contravention of either Section 3 or Section 4 of the Competition Act and dismissed the complaint against the two entities.
Section 3 and 4 pertain to anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant position, respectively.
The Samithi runs Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas while RailTel is a state-owned telecom infrastructure provider.
"The Commission in its various orders have opined that the procurer, which can also be considered a consumer of a tendering process, is at liberty to set its terms and conditions for procurement, based on its requirements. Every consumer/procurer must have freedom to exercise their choice freely in the procurement of goods and services," CCI said in the order dated March 3.
According to the regulator, such a choice is sacrosanct in a market economy as the consumers are in the best position to evaluate what meets their requirements and provides them competitive advantage in provision of their services.
While exercising such choice, they may stipulate standards for procurement which meet their requirement and the same as such ipso facto cannot be held as anti-competitive, it added.
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