The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : DTH: "no pressure to clear Sun TV plea"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

DTH: "no pressure to clear Sun TV plea"

Staff Reporter

Allegation far from truth, says Centre

CHENNAI: There is no political pressure on the Central Government to process and clear the Sun Direct Television Private Limited's application for Direct to Home (DTH) licence, the Madras High Court was told on Tuesday.

When a writ petition, filed by the AIADMK's Rajya Sabha MP, P.G. Narayanan, seeking to restrain the Centre from processing the DTH application of the Sun TV group came up for hearing before a vacation bench, the Centre filed a counter-affidavit "strongly denying" any political pressure in the matter.

"The Centre strongly denies the allegation of acting under any political pressure at any point of time in the matter of consideration and disposal of the application of the Sun TV group. The allegation is far from truth and it has been made only for the purpose of the present writ petition," said the counter.

Prayer

A prayer for a direction to reject an application and to seek an injunction restraining the authorities from processing the application "is far-fetched and not maintainable in law," it said.

Pointing out that the Centre was yet to take a "final decision" in the matter, the counter said the Ministry of Company Affairs had opined that there was no cross-holding of shares between the Sun Direct TV Private Limited and the Sun TV Private Limited. "Holding of shares by an individual in broadcasting or cable company or in a DTH company would not appear to be hit by the existing DTH guidelines of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry."

In his reply-affidavit, Mr. Narayanan reiterated his charges and alleged "gross violation of rules and regulations, statutory provisions, apart from the factum that political favouritism" is being shown to the family of a Union Minister. He urged the court to call for the files relating to the application of the Sun TV group to have "subjective satisfaction on the allegations of bias."

When the matter came up before the Bench, comprising Justice Prabha Sridevan and Justice C. Nagappan, on Tuesday, N. Jothi, counsel for the petitioner, said the issue must be probed. He wanted the court to call for the files. However, the Additional Solicitor-General of India, V.T. Gopalan, maintained that the petition was not maintainable, and alleged that the petition was filed only to "settle political scores, and due to political vendetta."

Senior counsel G. Masilamani said the petition was premature and that the Sun TV group's application, which was being processed, should not be delayed due to litigation. The Bench posted the matter to May 26 for arguments.

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