(9 July 2007 2:15 pm)

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has upheld the powers of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to administer the broadcasting sector.

The court has dismissed the writ filed by SET Discovery and Star as not maintainable, and has ruled that Trai has the power to regulate tariff for broadcasters, as well as interconnection issues.

The channels had last year filed the writ saying that Trai is a telecom regulator and since broadcasting is not a telecom service, it did not have powers over the broadcasting sector.

They had argued that Trai's powers were illegal because they violate Constitutional rights under Article 14 (equality before law) and Article 19 (1) a (freedom of speech and expression), but the court ruled that out.

The court has said that under Section 2 (1) K of the Trai Act, the Parliament had the power to extend any service to be put under the regulatory powers of Trai, and since the Parliament is sovereign, and has extended broadcasting to be under the regulator, the case was not maintainable.