Top bureaucrats as well as lawyers are vying for the top position in the Competition Commission, which is likely to become fully operational by the year end. About 200 candidates, mostly bureaucrats, have applied for six positions — Chairman and five members — in the Competition Commission of India (CCI), official sources pointed out.

The bulk of applications, sources said, have come from bureaucrats and some from the legal fraternity. In a bid to fully operationalise the CCI, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) last month invited applications for top positions in the market watchdog from candidates with 15 years of experience in competition laws. The maximum age was fixed at 62 years.

Presently, the CCI is headed by acting chairman Vinod Kumar Dhall, who has put in his papers four months ahead of the expiry of his term, which ends in October 2008.

At present, the body has no members. The Competition Act, 2002, which was amended by

Parliament last year in September, would remove the existing monopoly watchdog MRTPC. In pursuance of the amendments, the government constituted an appointment committee for selecting Members and the Chairman of the Commission under the chairmanship of Supreme Court Judge Justice Altamas Kabir.

The other members of the selection committee are secretaries of ministries of Corporate Affairs and Law and Justice and Rajya Sabha MP Nitish Sengupta.

In addition to the chairman and members, the CCI would require around 240 experts in the field of finance, law and economics to become fully operational.