India’s Supreme Court Wednesday issued notice to broadcast and telecom regulator TRAI in a case related to its tariff regulations, challenged by the broadcasters and some others like Star TV, Zee and Sony.

TRAI has to file its views on the tariff issue by September 7. 

The broadcasters had challenged in the Supreme Court a Bombay High Court order, which upheld regulator TRAI’s powers to make economic regulations, while granting some concession to the TV channels in a case that’s popularly known as New Tariff Order 2.0 (NTO 2.0) case.

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), a lobbying body for TV channels, several member-broadcasters and the Film and TV Producers Guild of India had challenged in the apex court the Mumbai court’s order on the ground it overlooked the constitutional rights of the broadcasters.

The new challenge by the broadcasters states that the Mumbai court has “incorrectly sought to read into Article 19(2), an additional requirement of public interest, when it comes to interpret a broadcaster’s right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India”.

It goes on to add: “This error in interpretation of one of the most sacrosanct and hallowed of the fundamental rights, permeates the entire reasoning of the Hon’ble Bombay High Court in the Impugned Order, while dismissing the Petitioners’ challenge to the Impugned Amendments that have the effect of imposing unwarranted restrictions on the exercise of the fundamental right, of the members of the Petitioners, to speech and expression and in effect micro-managing the functioning of the broadcasting industry.”