MUMBAI: As soon as the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) came out with an order cancelling the registration of Kal Cables, the company run by the Maran group moved the Madras High Court challenging the order.

The petition contends that there was no notice issued to it before cancellation. While the petitioner was seeking to squash the order, the interim prayer was to provide a stay on it. The court denied the stay and said that the 15 day deadline for winding up operations will continue. However it has stayed the MIB’s directive to put a scroll on its network informing them that the service will be cut and asking them to move to other MSOs.  

The petition from Kal Cables managing director Vittal Sampathkumaran states that following the insertion of Rules 11A to 11F in the Cable Television Network Rules 1995, it had applied for grant of registration to operate as MSO in digital addressable system (DAS) areas in November 2012.

In March 2013 the MIB granted provisional registration to Kal Cables which has now been revoked and has asked the MSO to wind up operations within 15 days. The registration was denied on the grounds of denial of security clearance. However, Kal says that there has been no change in its business operations, and hence this is no cause for denial of licence.

The court has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to submit its report on why the clearance was denied. Counsel for MHA said that the document was confidential and could be provided only by Tuesday, 2 September.

Kal Cables runs Sumangli Cable Vision that has operations mainly in Chennai.