Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation (TACTV) approached the Madras high court to restrain the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from interfering with the transmission of its cable TV signals in the Chennai metro area.
After hearing arguments from advocate general A.L. Somayaji assisted by a special government pleader Abdul Saleem and additional solicitor general P. Wilson, Justice V. Dhanapalan posted to December 19 further hearing of the petition filed by TACTV.
TACTV also sought to forbear the TRAI from taking any action against it pursuant to and in terms of the press release dated December 10, pending consideration of its digital addressable system (DAS) licence applications dated July 5, 2012 and November 23, 2012.
The TRAI had issued a press release conveying that in Chennai metro area, transmission of analog signals was illegal and digitalisation had to be implemented immediately, failing which cable TV connections will be switched off at any time.
According to Saleem, even after the lapse of 17 months, the Union government had not yet processed the application of the petitioner for DAS licence and arrived at a decision.
The Union government was well aware that nowhere in the world was a welfare measure of transmitting cable TV programmes at Rs 70 available, and it was only due to political and commercial reasons prevailing in the state that it deliberately did not want to issue a DAS licence to the petitioner.
On the other hand, it was trying to implement digitalisation through TRAI, despite being aware that the matter was sub judice.
Though there was no specific order of the division bench extending the interim order, the factual position was that the status quo prevailing on that day continues as on date.
Till the batch of petitions was disposed of, digitalisation cannot be forced on the petitioner, Saleem added.
