sectors of the economy and sectors regulated by sector specific laws such as telecommunication, electricity, petroleum, insurance etc. are also included within the ambit of the Act for the competition related matters/issues. To this extent there is no conflict as both these statutes have their respective and mutually exclusive regulatory regimes. This observation is in sync with the Commission’s holding in many previous cases in the electricity sector and other regulated sectors. As observed by the Commission in Case No. 91 of 2014 (Open Access Users Association vs. Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited & Ors.), the mandate of the Commission is to eliminate practices having adverse effect on competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade carried on by other participants, in markets in India. Sectoral regulators have necessary technical expertise to determine access, maintain standard, ensure safety and determine tariff. The issues relating to entry conditions, technical details, tariff, safety standards have direct control on prices, quantity and quality primarily seems to be within the exclusive ambit of sectoral regulators. Thus, sectoral regulators focus on the dynamics of specific sectors, whereas the Commission focuses on functioning of the markets by way of increasing efficiency through competition. In fact, the role played by the Commission and the sectoral regulators are complementary and supplementary to each other as they share the common objective of obtaining maximum benefit for the consumers.
