ORDER

By Aftab Alam, Chairperson –

The petitioner is a direct-to-home (DTH) operator and it is a distributor of TV channels under the broadcasting regulations. The respondent is a broadcaster of TV channels.

The petitioner has filed this petition against the respondent seeking recovery of Rs.4,12,29,171/- as dues of carriage fee. It has computed its dues as under: (i) the principal outstanding - Rs.3,65,17,000/- (ii) interest @ 18% per annum on unpaid dues for the period 07.11.2011 till 21.08.2013 - Rs.23,68,795/- (iii) interest @ 18% per annum on unpaid dues for the period 07.10.2012 to 31.08.2013 - Rs.16,54,000/- (iv) TDS deducted by the respondent on a certain invoice - Rs.6,89,375/- Total - Rs.4,12,29,171/- According to the petitioner, it entered into, what is called as an ‘ Access A greement’ with the respondent on 11.11.2010. Under the agreement, the respondent is called as the ‘P rogrammer ’ and it is stipulated that Tata Sky would provide access to the Programmer in respect of its Bengali language programme service known as “Rupashi Bangla”. The term of the agreement was for the period 07.10.2010 to 06.10.2013. Clause 6 of the agreement dealt with Bandwidth Support Fee and p