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Tag: Supreme Court

  • Revised reserve price for spectrum auction cut to half

    Revised reserve price for spectrum auction cut to half

    NEW DELHI: Following the failure of the November 2012 auction for 2G spectrum, the government has decided that the reserve price for 800 MHz band in all service areas will be reduced by 50 per cent from the previous reserve price.

    The previous reserve price was approved by the Cabinet in its meeting held on 3 August 2012, following directions of the Supreme Court for fresh auction.

    The revision had to be done as no bids were received during auctions held for 800 MHz band (CDMA) for all service areas in November 2012.

    The cabinet decided that pricing of spectrum for current spectrum holding in the 800 MHz band (CDMA) by existing operators in the 800 MHz band at the reserve price will hold till auction discovered price is available.

    This follows the recommendations of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM).

    The above decisions are expected to result in further efficient utilisation of the scarce natural resource of spectrum facilitating proliferation of telecom services in the country.

  • Film City wants to set up museum at Whistling Wood land

    Film City wants to set up museum at Whistling Wood land

    MUMBAI: Head of Film City Shyam Tagde has said that he would request the Maharashtra state government to use the recovered land of Subhash Ghai‘s Whistling Woods for the culture department‘s ambitious plan of setting up a Bollywood museum.

    “The project report of the museum is almost ready. If approved by the government, the plan on using the land could be envisaged,” he said.

    According to Tagde, the museum will act as an added attraction for tourists and help the government generate revenue.

    The Supreme Court had suggested that the government could lease out the land by inviting bids at market rates.

    The state government has already initiated procedure of recovering 12.5 acres of land from the institute after the Supreme Court ruling last Thursday.

  • State initiates move to recover Ghai’s Whistling Wood land

    State initiates move to recover Ghai’s Whistling Wood land

    MUMBAI: Following the Supreme Court’s directive, the state government has initiated the process to recover the land from Subhash Ghai where the film training institute Whistling Woods International is based.

    Film City managing director Shyam Tagde said that he sent a letter to the institute after the apex court’s verdict. “I wrote a letter to Whistling Woods on Wednesday evening asking it to return the land and spoke to its chief executive officer,” said Tagde. “The institute said it would cooperate,” he said.

    The state will initially recover 14.5 acres of 20 acres. The remaining 5.5 acres, on which the institute is built, can be retained till May 2014, the court had expressed.

    Tagde said the officials need three to four days to demarcate the land to be recovered, for which the measuring may start on Saturday.

  • SC lifts Aarakshan ban in UP

    SC lifts Aarakshan ban in UP

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today declared illegal the ban imposed by Mayawati government on the release of producer-director Prakash Jha‘s film, Aarakshan.


    The apex court, thus, cleared the decks for the release of the film in Uttar Pradesh.


    Jha had challenged the ban imposed on the release of the film by Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab government.


    The Punjab and Andhra Pradesh governments, however, lifted the ban after the director agreed to remove the objectionable portions. But the Mayawati government refused to lift the ban on the ground that it may create law and order problems.


    A bench comprising Justices MK Sharma and Anil R Dave quashed the UP government order banning the release of the movie for two months.


    The movie has already been released in other parts of the country on 12 August.


    Jha in his petition had contended that the ban order violated his fundamental right to Freedom of Speech and Expression guaranteed under Article 19(i)(a) of the Constitution of India.


    Earlier, the Mumbai and Patna High Courts refused to interfere with the release of the film, the latter observing that there had been no law and order problem since its release.


    The Madras High Court had stayed the release of the film but changed its order after Jha convinced the court that the issue related to some extraneous payment not linked to this film.


    Earlier this week when the apex court issued notice to the UP Government on the petition, the bench also asked the Centre to give its reaction in view of the contentions by Jha that the state governments cannot override the permission granted by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to exhibit a movie.


    The petition contended the decision by the governments of UP, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh was due to political reasons and it violates the fundamental right to speech and expression.


    In the petition, Jha said the examining committee of Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC), which cleared the film for exhibition, comprised members drawn from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and other backward castes and the ban by the three states is “biased and arbitrary”.


    Seeking a stay on ban orders, Jha had cited various apex court judgments holding that “open criticism of the government policies and operations is not a ground for imposing restriction on expression views even in the form of films.”


    He said he has spent Rs 650 million towards production, publicity and marketing of the film and third party rights for distribution and exploitation of the film have also been created.


    Aarakshan, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Prateik Babbar and Hema Malini (in a guest role), deals with the sensitive issue of commercialisation of education in the light of caste-based reservations in the education system.

  • Patna High Court also rejects petition against Aarakshan

    Patna High Court also rejects petition against Aarakshan

    NEW DELHI: Even as the Supreme Court is to take up the case relating to Prakash Jha‘s film Aarakshan on Friday, the Patna High Court has dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) requesting the Court to stop the release of the film in Bihar.

    Petitioner Pramod Kumar Singh had demanded a stay on the release of the film fearing breach of peace in the state. Singh had said that certain comments, allegedly made in the film, were “against the constitutional provisions”.

    A division bench of the Patna High Court comprising Justice SK Katriar and Justice A Amanullah, however, dismissed the petition, saying a similar petition filed in the Bombay High Court was dismissed on 9 August.

    The bench further observed that as the film had already been released in Bihar on 12 August and no breach of peace took place since then, the application had been rendered infructuous.

    Even as the Uttar Pradesh Government gears itself to protect its ban of the film before the Apex Court tomorrow, it is learnt that the state exchequer lost revenue worth about Rs 40 million due to the ban.

    Estimates made by entertainment department said that window sales on the first weekend alone would have generated around Rs 25 million. By Tuesday, the amount was expected to cross Rs 40 million mark.

  • Supreme Court gives clean chit to sting ops in public interest

    Supreme Court gives clean chit to sting ops in public interest

    MUMBAI: For news channels conducting sting operations, this is a piece of good news. Rejecting a plea for putting curbs on the media and television channels from conducting sting operations, the Supreme Court has given a clean chit to NDTV while upholding the conviction of lawyer RK Anand.

    NDTV had carried out a sting operation in the BMW hit-and-run case that exposed collusion between the prosecution and defence counsel.

    A Bench comprising Justices BN Agrawal, GS Singhvi and Aftab Alam said, “It is not our intent here to lay down any reformist agenda for the media. The norms to regulate the media and to raise its professional standards must come from inside.”

    Rejecting suggestions that channels should carry out sting operations only after getting prior permission from the court, the Bench said,”Such a course would not be an exercise in journalism but in that case the media would be acting as some sort of special vigilance agency for the court. On a little consideration, the idea appears to be quite repugnant both from the points of view of the court and the media. It would be a sad day for the court to employ the media for setting its own house in order; and media too would certainly not relish the role of being the snoopers for the court.”

    A plea that the telecast should be permissible only after submitting the sting material to the court was also rejected. Pre-screening of the material would amount to pre-censorship, the court said.

    The apex court also held that the sting operation was not a media trial but in the larger public interest.

  • NBA condemns fake stings, warns govt against undue intervention

    NEW DELHI: For the first time since the Uma Khurana sting, in which the school teacher was shown getting girl students into prostitution, the News Broadcasters Association has openly denounced the fake sting in partucular and similar attempts, if any.

    In a press statement signed by NBA Secretary General Annie Joseph, the organisation has, however, also expressed concerns about the government’s role in news media.

    “The recent sting operation aired by TV channel Live India and events following it have raised substantial and serious issues.

    “The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) unequivocally condemns any attempt by anyone to fabricate news and to attempt to gain popularity at the cost of journalistic integrity. Such acts risk discrediting television news, and indeed the news media, as a whole,” the statement says.

    However, it adds that this does not mean that sting operations are wrong in principle. The NBA believes that sting operations are a legitimate journalistic tool and means of investigation, but like all powerful tools they have to be used with care and responsibility.

    “However, the NBA continues to question the role of government in media.

    “Regrettably, the present instance is only the latest in a series of government interventions in media content in the recent past, including several cases of suspension of licensed TV channels. In each instance the key question left unanswered was how and by what process it was determined that there was an offence; and on what basis the penalty was determined.

    “A free and independent media is the cornerstone of India’s powerful democracy, and it behoves an elected government to support and strengthen that freedom.

    “The NBA knows that with freedom comes responsibility, and respects the role of government in ensuring such responsibility.

    “However, it also believes that to do so requires a transparent and codified process. Government intervention in news content without a transparent, codified process and basis is nothing short of censorship, and a threat to the freedom of the press – and in turn to the health of the democracy.
    “In acknowledgement of the responsibility of the press, a committee of Editors of member channels of the NBA is framing guidelines for self-regulation for news and current affairs channels, for implementation at the earliest,” the statement concluded.

    However, it is notable that the NBA has not yet issued any statement on a national TV channel and powerful broadcaster group showeing the video of a former film starlet bathing in the nude inside a jail. That footage has been hauled up by the Supreme Court. NBA has so far offered no comments on that.

    The NBA, in the meanwhile, is in the process of formulating its own Code of Content, a first draft of which is going to be circulated among the NBA members, with an attempt to involve all news channels across the country, to make it a national, standard Code that is enforceable.

  • SC stays Assam order cancelling NE TV accreditation for National Games

    SC stays Assam order cancelling NE TV accreditation for National Games

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today stayed the order of the Assam Government cancelling the accreditation cards of North-East Television, thereby preventing it from covering the 33rd National Games starting today in Guwahati.

    A bench comprising Justices KG Balakrishnan and PK Jain stayed the operation of the impugned order dated 6 February, thereby permitting the petitioner television channel to cover the National Games, inaugurated by Congress President Sonia Gandhi this afternoon.

    Senior Counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioner, alleged the order has been passed as the channel has exposed the killing of innocent persons by militant organisations like the United Liberation Front of Assom and others in various places of the North-East and said the state government’s action amounted to violation of freedom of speech.

    The television network, which telecasts in eight languages spoken in all the states of the Northeast, said the NE TV has always highlighted issues related to national security and sovereignty.

  • Brazil Court orders Youtube to take down steamy video

    Brazil Court orders Youtube to take down steamy video

    MUMBAI: A Brazilian judge has ordered video sharing site YouTube to find a way to stop Brazilians from viewing steamy footage of supermodel Daniela Cicarelli and her boyfriend.

    Media reports state that the clip still appears periodically on YouTube, prompting the expanded order from Sao Paulo state Supreme Court Justice Enio Santarelli Zulian. Cicarelli, a model and ex-wife of footballer Ronaldo, sued YouTube after a video of her apparently having sex in shallow water on a beach with her boyfriend was posted to the site. For days it was the most viewed video in Brazil.

    It was way back in September that YouTube was ordered in September to remove video showing Cicarelli and Brazilian banker Renato Malzoni in intimate scenes along a beach near the Spanish city of Cadiz.

    The court says that YouTube must find a way to use filters so the clip stops popping up in Brazil on the site owned by Google. The case now goes automatically to a three-member panel of judges who will decide whether to make the order permanent and whether to fine YouTube as much as $119,000 for each day that the video was viewable state reports.

  • Upscale commercial establishments to pay market rates for pay channels: Trai

    Upscale commercial establishments to pay market rates for pay channels: Trai

    MUMBAI : In an order issued today, the sector regulator has decreed that pay broadcasters will now be able to charge “market rates” to more upscale hotels and big commercial establishments that access their channels.

    The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has stated that the tariffs of pay channels as well as set top box rentals will be left to mutual agreements and market forces in both CAS and non-CAS areas “subject to restrictions on maximum bouquet price in relation to sum of individual channel prices”.

    For the purpose of tariff regulation, Trai has identified two categories of commercial subscribers. One category consists of hotels with a grading of 3 star and above and heritage hotels. This category will also include any other hotels, motels, Inns and such other commercial establishments providing board and lodging and having 50 or more rooms. In the second category would fall all other commercial establishments.

    The regulator has grouped the rest of commercial establishments into the residual category and decreed that the same rules that govern ordinary cable subscribers will apply to them also, both in CAS and non-CAS areas.

    Taking note of a point made by pay broadcasters with respect to clubs, pubs and other such establishments, Trai’s tariff orders also provide that whenever “any commercial cable subscriber uses the programmes of a broadcaster for public viewing by 50 or more persons on the occasion of special events at a place registered under Entertainment Tax Act, then also the tariff will have to be mutually decided between the parties concerned.

    The pricing formula Trai has worked out is:

    I. The maximum retail price of any individual channel shall not exceed three times the average channel price of the bouquet of which it is a part.

    For example, if the maximum retail price of a five-channel bouquet is Rs 150 per (average channel price of Rs 30), the maximum price an individual channel can be priced at is Rs 90.

    II. The sum of the individual maximum retail prices of the channels shall not be more than 150 per cent of the maximum retail price of the bouquet. Therefore, the total a la carte pricing all these five channels together can charge would be a maximum of Rs 125 (Rs 150 + Rs 75).

    Trai issued the order after the Supreme Court agreed with its argument that in order to ensure an orderly growth of the telecom sector in the country, it was necessary to have differential tariffs for commercial and non-commercial subscribers of conditional access system (CAS).

    Trai’s submission was in response to a petition filed by the Association of Hotels and Restaurants, which challenged an order of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) that upheld the dual rates.

    Trai had placed the draft Tariff Orders, both for CAS notified areas and non-CAS areas, along with a letter to stakeholders inviting comments by 10 November.

    Broadcasters see Trai’s decision as a positive step towards generating subscription revenues. “Business will see at least a three-fold jump,” says Novex Communications head Ketan Kanakia.