Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Writ petition filed against Sun Network

MADURAI: A writ petition has been filed before the Madras High Court alleging that Sun Network had not followed certain procedures contemplated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for converting its free-to-air channels into pay channels.

After hearing preliminary arguments advanced by the petitioner’s counsel before the Madurai Bench, Justice K. Mohan Ram ordered notice to TRAI, Sun Network and its authorised distributor, Channel Plus. The respondents were directed to file their reply within 10 days.

The petitioner, Majitha Ahmed, a cable operator in Tirunelveli, said she would fall within the definition of Multi System Operator as mentioned in clause 2(a) of a TRAI notification dated October 1, 2004.

She alleged that Sun Network had violated TRAI guidelines, which mandated the broadcaster to advertise in two national newspapers and hold discussions with MSO/cable operators before changing to pay channel platform.

Claiming that the network officially began offering pay channels only from December 1, 2007, she said the MSOs were forced to purchase decoders to receive its signals as early as November 2006 and were asked to pay subscription charges.

“I was made to pay the amount to avoid disconnection of Sun TV signal. At the same time, I had not collected any amount from subscribers since Sun TV was not a pay channel up to November 30, 2007,” her affidavit read.

Petitioner’s counsel, M. Vallinayagam, said his client was forced to approach the court as the network had issued a public notice on January 31 in a Tamil daily owned by it threatening to disconnect its signals to his client for defaulting payment of subscription. Hence, he sought a direction to restrain Sun Network and Channel Plus from collecting subscription fee either from the subscribers or MSOs.

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