Rekha Oberoi & Others And MGF Development Ltd. & Others

Case No. 28 of 2023 Page 1 of 12 COMPETITION COMMISSION OF INDIA Case No. 28 of 2023 In Re: Rekha Oberoi Informant No. 1 Vikas Oberoi Informant No. 2 Akash Oberoi Informant No. 3 (All residents of 5 Oak Drive Farms Chhatarpur New Delhi 110074) And MGF Development Ltd. Opposite Party No. 1 17-B, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi-110002 MGF Mall Management Opposite Party No. 2 Through Mr. Siddharth Gupta, Partner 3rd Floor, Annexe Building, MGF Metropolitan Mall MG Road, Gurugram-122001 Haryana MGF Promotion and Events Pvt. Ltd. Opposite Party No. 3 3rd Floor, Annexe Building, MGF Metropolitan Mall MG Road, Gurugram-122001 Haryana. Mr. Shravan Gupta Opposite Party No. 4 44, Amrita Shergill Marg, New Delhi-110003 Mr. Sidharth Gupta Opposite Party No. 5 50, Golf Links New Delhi-110003 Mr. Rajiv Gupta Opposite Party No. 6 50, Golf Links New Delhi-110003 Case No. 28 of 2023 Page 2 of 12 NSR Farms Pvt. Ltd. Opposite Party No. 7 173, Jhandewalan Extension, New Delhi-110055 The Motors & General Finance Ltd. Opposite Party No. 8 (formerly M/s MGF (India), Ltd.) 17-B, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi-110002 Columbia Holdings Pvt. Ltd. Opposite Party No. 9 D-26, Defence Colony, New Delhi-110024 MGF Metropolitan Mall & MGF Events Co. Opposite Party No. 10 3rd Floor, Annexe Building, MGF Metropolitan Mall MG Road, Gurugram-122001 Haryana The Town and Country Planning Opposite Party No. 11 through Director General Plot No. 3, Sec-18A, Madhya Marg, Chandigarh-160018 Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) Opposite Party No. 12 Vidyut Sadan, Vidyut Nagar, Hisar -125005 Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission Opposite Party No. 13 Through Secretary MVV4-3V4, Sector – 4, Panchkula Haryana-134112 CORAM Ms. Ravneet Kaur Chairperson Mr. Anil Agrawal Member Ms. Sweta Kakkad Member Mr. Deepak Anurag Member Case No. 28 of 2023 Page 3 of 12 Order under Section 26(2) of the Competition Act, 2002 1. The present information has been filed by Ms. Rekha Oberoi, Mr. Vikas Oberoi and Mr. Akash Oberoi (‘Informants’) alleging contravention of provisions of Section 3 and 4 of the Competition Act, 2002 (‘Act’) by MGF Development Ltd (‘OP-1’), MGF Mall Management (‘OP-2’), MGF Promotion and Events Pvt. Ltd. (‘OP-3’), Mr. Sharavan Gupta (‘OP-4’), Mr. Sidharth Gupta (‘OP-5’), Mr. Rajiv Gupta (‘OP-6’), NSR Farms Pvt. Ltd. (‘OP-7’), the Motor & General Finance Ltd. (‘OP-8’), Columbia Holdings Pvt. Ltd. (‘OP-9’), MGF Metropolitan Mall & MGF Events Co. (‘OP-10’), the Town and Country Planning through Director General (‘OP-11’), Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (‘OP-12’) and Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission through Secretary (‘OP-13’) (OP-1 to OP-10 are referred to as the ‘Opposite Parties’/’OPs’). Facts and Allegations as stated in the Information in brief 2. The Informants have averred that Metropolitan Mall, Gurugram (‘Mall’) has an area of about 2.97 lakhs square feet comprising both carpet area and joint common areas (about 89,865 square feet) which was constructed/developed by OP-1 either jointly or in association/partnership with other companies/persons namely OP-4 to 10 and others. OP-1 sold certain areas to various buyers for their retail shop business on super area basis consisting of joint common area. 3. The Informants run their business in the name and style of Indigo Metro and have purchased SF-33 and SF-34 in the Mall. The Informants also agreed to take on lease another shop, adjacent to SF-33 by letter of intent dated 21.04.2022. The conveyance deeds dated 19.04.2006 and 05.10.2007 executed in favour of the Informants provided that till such time the maintenance of the said complex is handed over to the association of shop owners, the necessary maintenance services of the Mall be handed over by OP- 7 (partner companies of OP-1) to OP-2 which shall be solely responsible for providing maintenance services to the said Mall including supply of electricity. It is alleged that OPs are in dominant position/dominant enterprise with respect to the Mall (relevant market) as per the Act. Case No. 28 of 2023 Page 4 of 12 4. OP-1 is the enterprise having control over the Mall and has appointed OP-2 as its sole agent for maintenance of the Mall. It is averred that OP-4 and OP-5 are brothers and that OP-1 and OP-2 are being run by OP-4 and OP-5, respectively. OP-5 got the business of OP-2 (maintenance of the Mall) under family Settlement in clandestine manner and in contrary to the stipulation in the conveyance deed and deed of declaration dated 06.05.2003. It is alleged that OP-2 runs the maintenance of the Mall including the illegal supply/sale of electricity and charging illegal exorbitant electricity charges (contrary to the provisions of the Electricity Supply Act) and maintenance charges from the owners of the Mall. OPs were responsible for the construction of the Mall. OP-11 is the Director, Town and Country Planning of the Government of Haryana which had given the approval to the building plan and OP-12 is a supplier of electricity to the Mall. OP-13 is a statutory body in the State of Haryana tasked with the matter concerning generation, transmission, distribution and trading of electricity. 5. The Informants have stated that they purchased the retail space (shops) on super area basis comprising both carpet area and joint common area from OPs. These were earlier sold to the previous buyer(s)/investor(s) through Builder Buyer Agreements and the Informants purchased the said premises from the previous buyer(s)/investor(s) through a separate Sale Deed and thereafter they entered into two separate conveyance deeds. The joint common area exclusively belongs to the legitimate buyers including the Informants, as sanctioned by OP-11. 6. The Informants have averred that the conveyance deed stipulated that the day-to-day management of the Mall would be handed over to the association of the owners of the Mall. However, the same was given to an association controlled by OP-1 and OP-2. This was done to create unfair trade practices and to bully the genuine shop owners in the same Mall and take over their joint common areas and use the same for the benefit of OP-1 to OP-6 in criminal conspiracy with OP-1 and their associates/partners from OP-7 to OP-10, and others. 7. The Informants have stated that the joint common areas of the Mall belong to retail owners in the Mall jointly and is indivisible. The retail purchasers such as the Case No. 28 of 2023 Page 5 of 12 Informants have been paying the maintenance charges for the joint common areas since they purchased space on the basis of super areas. However, these common areas allegedly have been illegally encroached upon by OPs. These areas have been sold or rented out to third parties illegally by OPs in criminal conspiracy with its associates/partner companies leading to misappropriation of money collected out of the illegal sale/illegal rent/illegal hoarding and advertisements running into crores of rupees, taking advantage of their dominant position. One such sale transaction was carried out vide sale deed dated 16.06.2006. OP-1 and OP-2 have various associated companies/web of companies and carried out fraudulent transactions. When the Informants realised that most of the joint common areas have been encroached upon by OPs, they stopped paying exorbitantly high maintenance charges till OPs provided complete accounts of joint common areas of the Mall. This took place in 2018/2019 in a meeting between the Informants and OP-1 and OP-2.