NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a petition filed by Republic TV and its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami seeking protection for all the employees of the news channel from coercive action by Maharashtra police.

The channel had filed a plea in the ongoing TRP scam investigation that was unearthed by Mumbai police on 8 October.

The plea alleging continuous hounding of Republic TV employees by the Maharashtra police and seeking a probe by central bureau of investigation (CBI) was withdrawn after a bench headed by justice DY Chandrachud remarked that it was "ambitious in nature.”

Chandrachud said, "This petition is ambitious in nature. You want Maharashtra police not to arrest any employee and transfer to CBI. You better withdraw this."

Goswami's counsel, senior advocate Milind Sathe, then chose to rescind the plea after the court granted liberty to Goswami and Republic TV to move appropriate forum for relief.

The fake TRP scam came to light in October when rating agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) filed a complaint through Hansa Research group, alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers. Hansa had been tasked with installing barometers, which record viewership data at sample households. 

Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh then claimed that Republic TV and two Marathi channels - Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi - were involved in manipulating ratings. 

Since then several arrests have been made in the case and there has been a lot of developments both within and outside of the courtroom.