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Tag: Justice Vilas V Afzalpurkar

  • Sikkim joins three others states excluded from DAS Phase III

    Sikkim joins three others states excluded from DAS Phase III

    NEW DELHI: The extension of Digital Addressable System (DAS) by three different High Courts affecting four states does not augur well for the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which may see a catapulting of such cases as reports pour of just over 50 per cent of seeding of set top boxes (STBs).
     
    After the extension of deadline in both Telengana and Andhra Pradesh, the Sikkim High Court has ordered a stay on analogue cable television signals switch-off until 28 March. A stay had been ordered after the first phase by the Madras High Court for Tamil Nadu, which also remains in force, though the Madhya Pradesh High Court has rejected a petition by Om Systems of Indore challenging Section 4A of Cable Television Networks Regulation Act 1995.
     
    Phase III stipulated for analogue signals to be switched off in all urban areas of the country by 31 December, 2015.
     
    Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai of the Sikkim High Court said in her order on a petition by All Sikkim Cable Operators Association that subscribers will be affected for no fault of theirs. The petition was filed through Association president Roshan Rai.
    In the arguments, it was contended that multi-system and local cable operators had to bear a high cost of migrating to a digital addressable service (DAS) and there were no investors; the difficult terrain of the state was not conducive to laying of optical fibre Cables (OFC) required for Digital networks; Set-Top-Boxes were not easily available in the country; and time limits for migration to digital regime are almost impractical.
    The court also noted that the Association had written to Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Sunil Arora on 26 November, 2015 apprising him of the constraints faced by the MSOs and LCOs and requesting for an extension of the deadline but the Ministry did not care to reply.
    The Court turned down a plea by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to be impleaded. 
    The directive by the Hyderabad High Court was notable in that Justice Vilas V Afzalpurkar went against an order given by a division bench of which he was a member in the same court relating to Phase III on 20 August, 2013.
  • DAS Phase III implementation extended by 2 months in AP, Telangana; Indore petition dismissed

    DAS Phase III implementation extended by 2 months in AP, Telangana; Indore petition dismissed

    NEW DELHI: Multi system operators (MSOs) in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh got a reprieve of eight weeks from implementing the Digital Addressable System (DAS) in Phase III towns and cities following stay orders issued by the Hyderabad High Court.

    While the Federation of Telangana MSOs got the relief yesterday (30 December), the MSO Welfare Association of Andhra Pradesh received the orders today (31 December).

    Issuing notice to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the judge also turned down an oral plea by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for being impleaded in the case. He said the regulator was free to file an application in this regard.

    Initially, Justice Vilas V Afzalpurkar recalled an order granted by a bench of which he was a part on 20 August, 2013 with regard to DAS Phase II and noted that all the issues being raised by counsel C Ramachandra Raju – who represented both parties – had been raised at that time and should have been dealt with by now.

    However, counsel Raju said statutory powers always come with corresponding responsibilities. He said the government was meant to give facilities to help people and not create more problems by enforcing a deadline without ensuring adequate seeding of set top boxes (STBs). Furthermore, he said the 2013 case was filed as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by an outside party whereas these petitions have been filed by the major stakeholders – the MSOs. In any case, Raju pointed out that no point of law had been decided in the 2013 case and so that case could not be taken as a precedent.

    He said that even the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh had written to the Centre to say that it was not possible to meet the deadline as STBs were inadequate.

    The judge also heard Assistant Solicitor General B Narayana Reddy on behalf of the government before directing it to file a counter affidavit within eight weeks.

    The Central Government had issued its directive about Phase III on 11 September, 2014.

    MSO Kishna Mohan, who is adviser to the Federation of Telangana MSOs, told Indiantelevision.com that under Phase III, 168 towns with 2.6 million collections were to be covered in Telangana and 178 towns with 3.5 million collections in Andhra Pradesh.

    The 13th Task Force meeting held yesterday was apprised of these cases and of the case in Indore was to be heard today, but assured all stakeholders that the Government will follow the directives of the Courts but will not extend the date beyond today unless directed by any Court to do so.

    Meanwhile, it is learnt that a similar petition by Indore-based MSO Om Systems in the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking a stay on digitisation in Phase III areas of Madhya Pradesh has been dismissed.

    Earlier, the Bombay High Court had declined to stay the deadline but said that interim stop gap agreements could be signed while asking the TRAI to come out with a model interconnect agreement at the earliest.