No advancing of Star India hearing in TRAI tariff case: SC

No advancing of Star India hearing in TRAI tariff case: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has declined early hearing of an appeal by Star India and Vijay TV against the order of the Madras High Court refusing to stay the DAS tariff order of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. A bench headed by Chief Justice J S Kehar said the matter would come up for hearing in due course.   

The matter was raised through a mention by counsel for Star TV, as the TRAI TV reference interconnect offer (RIO) and Quality of service order (QoS) are to come into effect from tomorrow following the order of the High Court.

High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar had directed the main petition by Star India and Vijay TV to be heard on 12 June. However, the court had said Section 3 of the Tariff order and all other consequences of such implementation/enforcement would be subject to the outcome of the main petition.

The broadcasters had challenged the order of TRAI on the grounds that it had no jurisdiction over content, and that actually came under Copyright Act, which is not administered by TRAI.

The Court said the petitioners had not made out a strong and prima facie case for interim stay. It also said that it had noted that the situation prevailing on 3 March 2017 when the order was issued and that prevailing today ‘has not changed so drastically’ as to warrant an interim stay. The Court said that it had also kept in view the larger public plea made by the Government counsel.

Earlier, TRAI had issued the orders on 3 March after getting the green signal from the apex court even as the broadcasters case was pending in the High Court.

Apart from the Tariff order which had originally been issued on 10 October last year, the regulator also issued the DAS Interconnect Regulations which had been issued on 14 October last year, and the Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Digital Addressable Systems) Regulations which had been issued on 10 October last year.

The orders can be seen at:
http://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/Tariff_Order_English_3%20March_20...
http://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/QOS_Regulation_03_03_2017.pdf
http://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/Interconnection_Regulation_03...

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