Supreme Court posts TRAI tariff case for Nov 30 final hearing
SUBSCRIBE
JOBS
Custom Image
Go Back
3 years ago 05:56:02am Television

Supreme Court posts TRAI tariff case for Nov 30 final hearing

New Delhi, 02-October-2021, By IBW Team

Supreme Court posts TRAI tariff case for Nov 30 final hearing

After a couple of postponements, the case pertaining to broadcasters’ challenge of sector regulator TRAI’s tariff regulations, was taken up briefly at the Supreme Court on October 1 and, after some directions, was posted for a hearing on November 30. According to information available with the Indianbroadcastingworld.com, when the matter was taken up yesterday for hearing, advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on behalf of Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), advanced brief arguments based on the rejoinder filed previously by the TV channels’ body in their petition.

Due to paucity of time, the court posted the matter for final hearing on November 30, while directing the counsels for petitioners and respondents to file written submissions before November 12, 2021.

Respondent Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and one of the petitioners, IBDF, had earlier filed exhaustive counter-reply and rejoinder, respectively.

IBDF, an industry lobbying body for TV channels in India, along with few other petitioners, including individual TV companies, 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.

In its filing before the apex court, TRAI, while outlining its various reasons for the tariff guidelines, has stated: “The Bouquets prescribed by broadcasters do not give consumers/households/members of the family a choice of
varied content at an affordable price. They are created only
with a view to increase broadcaster advertising revenue.”

At another place, TRAI has pointed out: “In many cases, the bouquet price artificially has reached such perversity that the bouquet price is cheaper than the Popular/Driver Channel in it. This is an abuse which TRAI as a Regulator cannot ignore…Finally, to make a virtue of a vice, Broadcasters then cite bouquet subscription as evidence of consumer preference/desire.”

The broadcasters’ and other petitioners’ position — apart from other legalities — is 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.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

Our Events

  • img
    SatCab Symposium

    SatCab symposium organized by Aavishkar Media Group is an annual event. It's a well-informed event where we have a panel discussion on the current affairs and future forecasting on our industry.

  • img
    BCS
    Ratna Awards

    BCS Ratna Award organized by Aavishkar Media Group is an annual event. In this award function, a community of our industry is honored by receiving the award for the contribution of their work.

  • img
    Chetna Yatra

    Chetna Yatra organized by Aavishkar Media Group is an annual event. Held by Dr. AK Rastogi, Chairman of Aavishkar Media Group. Pilgrimage India in his car for connecting the people of our industry.

  • img
    Imaan India Sammaan

    Imaan India Samman is an event mobilized by Aavishkar Media Group, which was launched in 2012. Giving the award to the NGOs for giving their contribution to society.

Youtube Videos