MUMBAI: The Indian Broadcasting Foundation ( IBF) today withdrew its petition seeking a stay on the Bombay High Court’s 4 January order after the Supreme Court refused to entertain its plea stating that there was nothing in that order to stay it. Ultimately, the petition was dismissed as withdrawn.
IBF senior counsel Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi began the proceedings by arguing that the Bombay HC had not really granted a stay order but it came to be interpreted as a stay in a subsequent order of another bench of the same court.
After going through the order, Justices JS Khehar and C Nagappan noted that there was nothing to stay the impugned order and the subsequent order was not in challenge before it. Therefore, the bench said that it could not interfere in the case at this stage even if someone had misinterpreted the order.
At this point, Dr Singhvi sought the court’s permission to withdraw the petition, which the court accepted.
According to sources, the IBF will now implead itself in cases where stay orders have been granted by the HCs. The foundation is believed to be filing impleadment applications next week. It is pertinent to note that the foundation has challenged only the Bombay HC order on DAS Phase III extension as it is directly impleaded only in this case.
After impleading itself in those cases, the foundation will file a fresh petition seeking vacating of stay orders granted by the HCs. It is likely to file the petition either by the end of next week or in the beginning of the subsequent week.
The IBF had moved the SC against the order passed by the Bombay HC in the Nashik Zilla Cable Operators Federation case. The federation had filed an application in the HC seeking a stay on DAS Phase III in Maharashtra since the issue of interconnect agreement in Phase I and II areas is yet to be resolved. The application was part of the writ petition filed by the federation on issues related to interconnection agreements.
In its order dated 4 January, the Bombay HC had merely stated that there was no need for an interim order on the basis of Kusum Ingots & Alloys Ltd vs the Union of India case as the Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim High Courts had already granted stay on DAS Phase III implementation in those states.
The relevant portion of the order is as follows, “Since the Andhra Pradesh High Court and Sikkim High Court have passed an order of status quo in view of the observations made by the Apex Court in the case Kusum Ingots & Alloys Ltd. Vs. Union of India [(2004) 6 Supreme Court Cases 254] and more particularly, paragraph 22 of the said order, the question of grant of interim order does not arise in this case. Stand over to 1st February, 2016.”
This order was interpreted differently by different parties. Broadcasters and some multi-system operators (MSOs) argued that the HC had not granted any stay as it had not said so in the order in as many words.
The local cable operators (LCOs), on the other hand, stated that the HC had not granted a stay directly, but by relying on Kusum Ingots & Alloys Ltd vs the Union of India case, it left very little to the imagination.
This argument was subsequently vindicated by the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay HC when it directed the state government to deseal the control rooms of Nanded-based Girish Bhao Cables, Jalgaon Media & Communication Network, and Jalgaon-based Shraddha Cable Network since there is a stay order in place in terms of the 4 January order. The state government had sealed the control rooms of these LCOs for running analogue signals even past the 31 December 2015 deadline.
Currently, DAS Phase III has been stayed by the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad, Bombay High Court, Sikkim High Court, Odisha High Court, High Court of Chhattisgarh, and Allahabad High Court. Certain cable operators in Karnataka and Kerala had individually secured interim reliefs from the HCs against coercive action by the government.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s (MIB) petition challenging stay orders on DAS Phase III is yet to be listed for hearing in the SC as it has to file certain documents with the petition. The MIB wants all the DAS-related cases to be clubbed together and the stay orders vacated.