Chennai: The Madras High Court has ordered status quo on the issue relating to disconnection of TV signals transmitted by state owned Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation (TATCV).
The status quo order by Madras High Court thus grants permission for Arasu Cable to continue Analogue signals feed in Tamil Nadu cable homes until further orders, that goes beyond the DAS Phase III deadline of 31st December 2015.
Posting the matter to 6th January, Justice MM Sundresh ordered maintenance of status-quo till then. The order dated 21st December was given on a plea filed by K Priya, General Manager of TATCV seeking a direction to the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to grant provisional license for Digital Addressable System.
Counsel for Arasu Cable Abdul Saleem submitted that pending consideration of their application of July 5, 2012 and November 23, 2012 for regularisation of the licence, the status quo should be maintained.
Advocate General A L Somayaji submitted that a total of 326 provisional registrations have been granted to other operators. Though, TACTV applied for the license much earlier, the earlier union government did not consider the plea.
On the other hand, the Ministry had directed that the phase III areas comprising municipalities and corporations will have to be digitalised by December 31 this year.
Otherwise, the signals of TACTV will be disconnected, he submitted.
The “inaction on the part of the Ministry is illegal, against the due process of law and violative of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India”, he contended.
