JUDGMENT

S.B. Sinha

Technical interoperability and Commercial interoperability of the equipments supplied by Direct to Home (DTH) Operators to the customers is in question in this petition.

The Petitioner Association addressed a letter to this Tribunal, which has been treated as a Petition.

2. The Petitioner is said to be a non-profit voluntary consumer organization working in the interest of the consumers in the State of Tamil Nadu and is engaged in the activities of creating awareness amongst them on various issues and fighting for their rights in various forums.

3. Indisputably, interoperability is a condition of license issued in favour of the DTH operators by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. Article 7 of the terms & conditions of license in Form B, granted in terms of Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (The Act) and Indian Wireless Telegraph Act, 1933 provides therefor.

4. Indisputably, for the purpose of providing Televisions on DTH platform, a set top box is an essential equipment. The set top boxes (STBs) are supplied to the customer by way of (1) outright purchase; (2) hire purchase; or (3) rental.

The commercial inter-operability of supply of STBs is govern