MRTPC forwards Jet-Sahara deal to DGIR

MRTPC forwards Jet-Sahara case to the Director General, which will submit in turn a report in the next three weeks.

The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC), which is inquiring into the Rs 2,300 crore takeover of Air Sahara by Jet Airways, has forwarded the case to the Director General (Investigations and Registrations), which will submit in turn a report in the next three weeks.

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"We have referred the Jet-Sahara deal to DGIR, which will submit its report in the next three weeks," MRTPC Chairman Bhupinder Kumar Rathi said on Thursday.

Asked whether the Commission would be issuing notice to the buyer over the matter, he said this would depend on the recommendations of the report.

"If the DGIR reports cartelisation of the aviation sector due to the buyout, then we will issue notice and the trial will formally start," he said.

Nearly a month after the mega deal was clinched in January this year, BJP MP Uday Singh had written a letter to Prime Minister Manomohan Singh urging that MRTPC should look into it in the interest of probity and transparency.

He had also expressed the apprehension that the buyout could "create a worrisome monopoly entity in the sensitive aviation sector in domestic and foreign route."

According to sources, the PMO had referred the matter to the Ministry of Company Affairs, which forwarded it to MRTPC.