MUMBAI: A division bench of the Supreme Court will again hear Raj TV's petition against the I&B ministry's order cancelling the network's uplinking licence on 10 December.

The court battle between the communication ministry and the Raj TV network started with the ministry revoking the licence given to Raj TV since the network had been telecasting two channels - Vissa and Raj Musix- for over a year without valid licence or permission.

This was being done at a time when the licence granted was valid for Raj TV and Raj Digital Plus only.

Another serious charge made by the ministry against the network was the non-renewal of its licence. The network had continued to telecast its channels without renewing the licence even after it had expired in September 2003.

On 8 November, a division bench of Madras High Court had terminated the network's licence before granting it ten days' time to fulfill its Diwali programming obligations.

The network, meanwhile, moved the SC, filing a special petition and stay application against the Madras High Court order.

But on 17 November, the apex court upheld the decision of communication ministry to cancel the network's uplinking licence, which forced the channel to shift its uplinking from the Chennai teleport to Bangkok on 18 November.