Reprieve for Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV

Justice M M Sundresh granted the injunction, while passing interim orders on a writ petition moved by K Priya, General Manager, TACTV. 

The order comes at a time when the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had directed that the Phase III areas comprising municipalities and corporations will have to be digitised by December 31, else the signals of TACTV would be disconnected. 

Government counsel Abdul Saleem, appealed to the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to grant provisional licence for Digital Addressable System (DAS) to the petitioner under Section 11 E of Cable Television Network Rules, pending consideration of their application dated July 5 and November 23, 2012, for a regular one.

When the matter came up before the judge, Advocate General AL Somayaji submitted that a total number of 326 provisional registrations were granted to other operators. 

Though the TACTV applied for the licence earlier, the Union Ministry headed by the previous Government, did not consider the plea. He argued that the inaction on the part of the Ministry was illegal.