The court ruled that existing subscription agreements should be renewed based on previous terms amid procedural disputes concerning signal delivery and subscriber bases.

JUDGMENT

Kuldip Singh :

The dispute in the present petition pertains to the Subscriber Line Report (SLR) on the basis of which subscription agreement for the signals of the respondents is to be renewed between the parties.

The petitioner is a Multi System Operator (MSO) providing cable TV services in the area of Siliguri. When the petition was filed, M/s Media Pro Enterprise India Private, who was an agent of broadcasters supplying the signals of Star and Zee channels Limited, was the sole respondent.

Subsequent to the filing of the petition, The Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) Interconnection Regulations, 2004 was modified vide notification No. 6-11/2014- B & CS dated 10.2.2014. As a consequence of which, Media Pro Enterprise India Private Limited stopped supplying the signals of Star and Zee channels. On an oral request made by both sides, M/s Star India (P) Ltd and M/s Taj Television (India) Pvt. Ltd. were impleaded as parties vide order of the Tribunal dated 25.9.2014.

The petitioner and M/s Media Pro, had entered into a subscription agreement dated 18.9.2012, the term of which was from 1.4.2012 to 31.3.2013. As per the agreement, the petitioner was to pay a sum of Rs. 32,04,106.29, excluding taxes, per month to the respondent as subscription fee for its signals.

On 14.6.2013, the respondent issued notice to the petitioner under clause 4.1 of the Interconnect Regulations asking it to clear the outstanding of an amount of Rs. 1,00,42,312/- and also to come forward with correct subscriber base details for renewal of the subscription agreement. A public notice was also issued by the respondent under clause 4.3 of the Regulations. The present petition was filed on 15 July 2013 seeking, inter alia, a declaration that the notices issued by the respondent were premature and illegal and a direction to the respondent to renew/sign the subscription agreement on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

It is the contention of the petitioner that after signing of the subscription agreement dated 18.9.2012, a few LCOs of the petitioner left it to join the rival MSO, namely, Digi Cable Comm. Pvt. Ltd. As per the petitioner, it wrote a letter to the respondent on 28.12.2012, requesting it to delete these migrated LCOs from its records and raise the invoices accordingly. Further as per the petitioner, its letter to the respondent was not replied to but it, however, continued to communicate with the respondent with regard to action taken on its request. Instead of considering and taking any action on the request for down-gradation in the SLR, the respondent issued the notices under clause 4.1 and 4.3 of the Regulations.

The Tribunal vide its order dated 17.7.2013 restrained the respondent from disconnecting the signals to the petitioner subject to the petitioner paying the admitted amount to the respondent. It was also directed by the Tribunal that the representative of the respondent may visit the petitioner’s office on July 22, 2013 for conducting a joint survey to ascertain the number of local cable operators who continued to remain with the Petitioner on that date. The relevant portion of the order is as under : i.

“The Respondent is restrained from disconnecting the signals to the Petitioner in furtherance of the impugned notice.

ii. The Petitioner must pay to the Respondent the admitted dues amounting to Rs. 3,840,579.07/- in course of the week. Here it needs to be clarified that the aforesaid amount is arrived at after discounting Rs. 1,491,750.00/- in regard to which it is stated by the Petitioner (vide Annexure-P/17) that a cheque for that sum is handed over to the Respondent which the Respondent has so far not encashed.

In other words, the amount of Rs. 3,840,579.07/- is computed, taking the sum of Rs. 1,491,750.00/- as having been paid to the Respondent if that is not so, the outstanding amount which the Petitioner must pay to the Respondent would include the additional sum of Rs. 1,491,750.00