TDSAT issues non-bailable warrant against TV Vision MD Ravi Gautam Adhikari in Hathway payment dispute

MUMBAI: Tribunals rarely reach for arrest warrants, which is precisely why this one is worth pausing on. The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has issued a non-bailable warrant against TV Vision managing director Ravi Gautam Adhikari, ordering his arrest and production before the tribunal after the broadcaster failed to pay Hathway Digital more than Rs 10.72 crore despite a clear order to do so.

The dispute itself is not new. It stems from Broadcasting Petition No. 72 of 2023, filed by Hathway Digital against TV Vision, which operates channels including Mastiii, Dabangg and Dhamaal under the Adhikari Group. TDSAT had directed TV Vision to pay Hathway Rs 10,72,03,925 by 31 August 2025, and had gone further, ruling that if payment wasn’t made, both authorised representative Markand Adhikari and managing director Ravi Gautam Adhikari would need to appear personally before the tribunal. According to Hathway, neither happened, no payment landed, and no one showed up, prompting a contempt application.

What makes this escalation notable is the tribunal’s evident exasperation with the pattern of delay. TV Vision told the bench it had filed a writ petition before the Bombay High Court, but TDSAT was unambiguous in its 21 July order: there was no stay granted by any competent court or higher judicial forum, and non-compliance with its original 9 July 2025 order stood uncorrected. The tribunal also noted Hathway’s submission that TV Vision had allegedly continued paying other creditors while specifically withholding payment owed to Hathway, hardly the profile of a company genuinely unable to pay, and observed that the broadcaster had repeatedly sought adjournments rather than actually arguing its case, all while its channels carried on operating on OTT platforms regardless.

That combination, selective payment to other creditors, procedural stalling, and business as usual on the content side, appears to have tipped the tribunal from frustration into action. The arrest order is a sharp reminder that TDSAT, often seen as a slower-moving forum for broadcasting and telecom disputes, retains real enforcement teeth when it concludes a party is simply running down the clock.

For an industry watching closely, the case carries weight beyond the rupee figure involved. Ravi Adhikari is chairman of TV Vision and belongs to the Adhikari family, one of the earliest names in Indian television broadcasting, son of the late Gautam Adhikari, who co-founded Shri Adhikari Brothers alongside his brother Markand Adhikari. A legacy broadcasting name facing a non-bailable warrant over unpaid dues is the sort of story that tends to concentrate minds across the distribution ecosystem, particularly among smaller cable and MSO operators who often find themselves on the wrong end of exactly this kind of payment delay.

The matter returns to TDSAT on 5 August, and how TV Vision responds between now and then, payment, appearance, or further legal manoeuvring, will likely determine whether this becomes a genuine enforcement action or simply another chapter in a long-running standoff.