Case Law Details
ICAI Vs Competition Commission of India (Delhi High Court)
Delhi High Court held that Competition Commission of India (CCI) does not have jurisdiction over the Continuing Professional Education (CPE) activities of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). The decision of ICAI to conduct the CPE program as a regulator and not as a service provider falls within its statutory powers to regulate the accountancy profession. The CCI’s role as a market regulator does not extend to reviewing decisions of other statutory regulators that are unrelated to trade or commerce. ICAI’s decision to restrict the CPE program to its own organizations is a matter of maintaining professional standards and cannot be considered an abuse of dominance. The CCI’s jurisdiction is limited to activities that impact markets involving entities engaged in trade and commerce.
FULL TEXT OF THE JUDGMENT/ORDER OF DELHI HIGH COURT
1. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (hereafter ‘ICAI’) has filed the present petition, inter alia, impugning an order dated 28.02.2014 (hereafter ‘the impugned order’) passed by the Competition Commission of India (hereafter ‘the CCI’) under Section 26(1) of the Competition Act, 2002 (hereafter ‘the Competition Act’), whereby the CCI has directed the Director General (hereafter ‘DG’) to conduct an investigation into the matter relating to the Continuing Professional Education (CPE) program being conducted by ICAI. ICAI, as a part of its functions, has framed the CPE program, which requires its members to continue to keep themselves abreast of professional developments and skills by participating in educational activities related to the profession on a continuous basis.
2. ICAI has, with a view to maintain the standards of the professional services rendered by its members, identified CPE as an area of focus. In the year 2003, ICAI issued a Statement on Continuing Professional Education, which prescribes the norms for undergoing CPE activities. The CPE program of ICAI requires its members to devote specified hours for CPE learning activities. The learning activities are classified into structured and unstructured activities. ICAI has also prescribed the minimum number of CPE credit hours including structured CPE credit hours that are required to be earned by its members, classified on the basis of their age (whether below or above 60 years) and on the basis of whether they hold a Certificate of Practice (CoP). At the material time, a member of ICAI below the age of 60 years holding a CoP was required to earn ninety CPE credit hours in a rolling three year period. Out of said ninety CPE credit hours, atleast sixty CPE credit hours are required to be on account of structured learning (structured CPE credit hours) including the mandatory twenty Structured CPE credit hours in a calendar year. The balance thirty CPE credit hours can be completed by unstructured learning. Those members of ICAI who do not hold a CoP require to complete at least an aggregate of forty-five CPE credit hours of either structured or unstructured learning, as per their choice, in a rolling three year period. However, they are required to complete ten CPE credit hours during each calendar year.
Please become a Premium member. If you are already a Premium member, login here to access the full content.
