JUDGMENT

1. This Petition, under Section 14(A) (1) read with Section 14 (a) (ii) of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (hereinafter referred to as “TRAI Act”) has been filed by Hathway Digital Private Limited, Petitioner, against GCN(Mondal Cable TV) & M/s Saptak Digital Pvt. Ltd., Respondents, with a prayer for a direction against Respondents to return 123 STBs, or in lieu of the STBs issued, pay an amount of Rs. 1,96,800/- (Rupees One Lakh Ninety Six thousand Eight hundred only) @ Rs. 1600 /- towards cost per STB, to the Petitioner. A further prayer was to pass such orders as this Tribunal deems fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.

2. In brief, the Petition contends that Petitioner, namely, Hathway Digital Private Limited, incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, having its Registered Office, at 805/806, “Windsor” Off C.S.T. Road, Kalina, Santacruz (E) Mumbai-400098. The Petitioner, is a MSO, engaged in the business of distribution of television channels and holds the license under the Cable Television Networks Act. The Cable TV business of Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited has been assigned to Hathway Digital Private Limited w.e.f. 01.04.2017 due to internal restructuring of the Petitioner Company. It has further been stated that the Petitioner has changed its name from Hathway Digital Private Limited to Hathway Digital Limited w.e.f. 03.06.2020.

3. The Respondent No.1, namely, G.C.N (MONDAL CABLE TV ), is a local cable operator represented through its proprietor, namely, Mr. Birendra Nath Mondal, having its office at Ketera (Bhata) Post Office – Tarakeswar Police Station- Tarakeswar District - Hooghly, 712410 West Bengal. That the Respondent No. 2, namely, M/s Saptak Digital Pvt. Ltd, is a competing MSO, of the Petitioner, having its registered office, at Rahaman Building, 2nd Floor, Grand Trunk Road, Memari, East Bardhaman-713146 West Bengal.

4. On the request, made by the Respondent No.1, the Petitioner agreed to provide its signals / services, to be further re-transmission to the subscribers, in the area of Hooghly and thereby entered into a Model Interconnect Agreement, under the terms of which, the Respondent No. 1 was issued 123 Set Top Boxes and viewing cards, to it by the petitioner. All the LCOs across India availing signals from the Petitioner have been given access to Hathway Connect Portal. Similar is the case of most of all major MSOs operating pan-India. In the case of Petitioner, each LCO is provided a unique user ID and once they are registered, the same can only be accessed by them as it can only be operated by using a password. The LCOs have been given all the rights through portal to activate, deactivate services of the consumers, change the packaging and provide channels, as per choice of consumers, and making payments to the Petitioner online, through Portal. It was stated that the said system was working in view of TRAI guidelines. The Digital MIA with financial sharing clause is uploaded on the Petitioner’s Portal and the LCO, after perusing and going through the terms of the MIA, accepts the same and then it further logs in to conduct its business in its usual course. The terms contained in the MIA are, as per prescribed by the TRAI, and the Petitioner is sharing the revenue with the LCOs at one of the lowest rates in the Industry, which is known to all. At the particular time when the LCO accepts the terms of the MIA, the date, time and IP address from where they agreed to the terms, and accepted the MIA, gets captured in the digital copy, stored with the Petitioner. The LCO’s login, acceptance and doing business through Portal post acceptance without any protest or demur does prove that LCOs have agreed to the terms and conditions of the MIA. A copy of the Model Interconnect Agreement is marked as Annexure P-1 to petition and exhibited as Exhibit PW 1/1.

5. Petitioner mentioned that the intention of the Respondent No.1, from the very ince