SC declines to stay Bombay HC ruling on Trai’s new tariff order

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to stay a Bombay HC judgment upholding the validity of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s New Tariff Order NTO 2.0, which was notified on January last year and had put a cap of Rs 12 instead of the existing Rs 19 on the price of a pay channel.
Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation, an umbrella organisation of private TV broadcasters, and many other private channels had moved the SC challenging the HC decision alleging that NTO 2.0 interfered with their fundamental right to carry on a particular trade or profession, guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution.
Appearing for the appellants, advocate Mukul Rohatgi, supported by senior advocates Gopal Subramaniam, N K Kaul, Amit Sibal and Gopal Jain, argued before a bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose that when the government does not regulate the price of cinema tickets, why would it do so for price of TV channels.
But the CJI-led bench said it would not be proper to grant any relief even though Rohatgi and others insisted for a stay on operationalising NTO 2.0.
For Trai, advocate Rakesh Dwivedi and advocate Sanjay Kapur said the HC had rejected interim stay on operationalising NTO after rejecting the broadcasters’ petitions challenging the validity of NTO. Dwivedi said the HC had validated the new tariff after scrutinising the provisions thoroughly. “The broadcasters and TV channels cannot raise the price of the channels at their whims and fancies,” he said.