The Kerala High Court will continue hearing on Feb 22 the case filed by AIDCF and a cable ops’ body against sector regulator TRAI’s amended tariff guidelines even as the petitioners and respondent(s) argued for and against maintaining status quo ante or situation as they were before February 17.

The All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) and Kerala Communicators Communication Ltd (a body of LCOs) had last week moved a fresh application in the Kerala court alleging ‘arm-twisting’ by broadcasters using regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s  ‘impugned’ tariff regulations, seeking immediate interim judicial relief.

Though the court did not grant any interim relief on Monday (February 20) when it took up the fresh application of the petitioners, who said some of their members were served with discontinuation-of-broadcast signals notices by broadcasters, it has been hearing the case at length.

Yesterday, according to a report in www.livelaw.in, the petitoners’ lawyer compared the sector regulator TRAI to Mahabharat’s queen Gandhari, alleging the regulator was being blind to the actions of the broadcasters.

The case, which lists TRAI and Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) as respondents, will continue today in the court of Justice Shaji Chaly.

“The petitioners are constrained to move the present application as certain members of the IBF (Indian Broadcasting Foundation), with intimation and knowledge of the Respondent No. 1 (TRAI), have issued disconnection notices to MSO members of the Petitioner No. 1 (AIDCF) organization, seeking to arm-twist the members into signing new interconnection agreements, placing purported reliance on

the Impugned TRAI Amendment Regulations 2022 and impugned TRAI Tariff Amendment Order 2022,” the new application filed by the petitioners last week states.

The fresh application was moved as some MSOs got a disconnection notice from broadcasting companies last this week if the clauses of filing details by MSOs were not completed as per TRAI’s amended tariff regulation, popularly now referred to as NTO 3.0

“The concerted efforts of the Respondents are to ensure that the New Tariffs are passed on the consumer even before the decision of the present writ (that is listed for hearing by the court on February 22 when last taken up) and that new interconnection agreements are also executed so that even if the Petitioners are successful in the writ petition, the ordinary consumer will still have to suffer the price increase and the broadcasters would be unjustly enriched,” the application elaborated.

The AIDCF has also put the blame of entertainment blackout in 45-50 million TV homes at the doorsteps of broadcasters and sector regulator TRAI.

The disconnection of signals by leading broadcasters to non-compliant MSOs and cable operators late last week has resulted in “depriving around 4,50,00,000 cable TV families across the country from being able to watch channels transmitted by the broadcasters”, AIDCF alleged in a statement on Saturday.

Leading broadcasters including Disney Star, Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Sony Pictures Networks India Ltd have stopped providing feed to cable operators who have not signed fresh interconnect agreements with increased prices under the New Tariff Order (NTO) issued by TRAI in November 2022.

AIDCF Secretary General Manoj Chhangani in a statement had said: “After giving a mere 48 hour notice to the platforms and inspite of the matter being sub-judice in various courts and some of the platforms requesting the broadcasters not to disconnect their channels in light of such proceedings, the broadcasters, Disney-Star, Sony and Zee, have gone ahead and disconnected their channels on the cable TV platforms of the members of AIDCF.”

Yesterday, in the Kerala court the counsel for TRAI stressed that there was no case for maintaining status quo ante as of February 17 as a majority of distributors, including MSOs, have complied as per the amended tariff guidelines.