Cable operators in Mumbai received a blow on Wednesday when the Bombay high court refused to extend the digitisation deadline.
Citing unpreparedness to implement digitisation, a section of cable operators from Mumbai and Chennai had approached their respective high courts and filed a petition seeking an extension of the October 31, 2012, deadline.
While the Madras high court awarded a five-day extension for implementation of digitisation in Chennai, pushing the deadline to November 5, 2012, Mumbai’s cable operators were not so lucky.
A division bench of justice DY Chandrachud and justice R G Ketkar while dismissing the petition filed by a cable operator, Bhavani Rajesh Cable and Digitech, said, “We do not find any illegality in the Union government’s stand and [are] thus dismissing the petition filed seeking an extension.”
The petitioners claimed that according to figures in Mumbai, around 85% of digitisation has been carried out while it would require a couple of months to complete the rest. They also alleged that by not granting the extension the Union government was allowing the DTH [direct-to-home] operators to have more business.
Countering the arguments, additional solicitor general Kevic Setalvad said, “It is not that the deadline had not been made public. The Union information and broadcasting ministry has been publicising on prime time across channels about the October 31 deadline and there has to be some deadline and an extension cannot be given.”
He added, “The cable operators who have not complied with, including the petitioners, should do it or face the consequences of no television. If the cable operators are not doing it, it’s because they want to earn profits illegally.”
The Bombay high court, after hearing both sides and taking into consideration a press note issued by the union ministry about the phase-wise digitisation progress in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, said that viewers will have to move to digital network by October 31.
