HC dismisses PIL against Sun DTH

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court today dismissed a public interest litigation seeking suspension of the licence granted to the Sun TV group to run a direct-to-home (DTH) service. Dismissing the PIL filed by O Paramasivam, secretary of the Consumer Rights Protection Council, Justice A Kulasekaran and Justice P Murugesan said it was not maintainable as a PIL as the petitioner neither had locus standi nor did he satisfy the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court relating to PILs. For PILs, there must be a real and genuine public interest involved and it should not be an “adventure borne out of wishful thinking,” they said. According to Paramasivam, as per licence guidelines, broadcasting companies should not have more than 20 per cent equity in another broadcasting company or cable network. As per the red-herring prospectus of Sun Group, Kalanithi Maran was holding 96.67 per cent, 89.9 per cent and 75 per cent shares, respectively, in Sun DTH, Sun TV and KAL Cables. He said that government secretaries for information and broadcasting and communications issued licence to Sun DTH and allowed it to become a monopoly in distribution of TV signals. The judges pointed out that respondents, including Sun DTH had stated that limit of 20 per cent was not exceeded. The government secretaries had also stated that they had examined the issue before granting licence. Holding of shares by an individual in a broadcasting cable company or in DTH would not be hit by aforesaid provisions of the DTH service and hence there was no violation of any guidelines, the judges said.
Friday March 7 2008 09:50 IST Newindpress.com