AG Rohatgi, Chidambaram, Sibal, Khurshid in Doordarshan’s plea to allow feed sharing with private cable operators; SC stays Delhi HC order

The Supreme Court today stayed the Delhi High Court judgment which had barred National Broadcaster Doordarshan from sharing live feed of the World Cup cricket matches with private cable operators..A Division Bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Prafulla Chandra Pant issued notice in the appeal filed by Prasar Bharati and stayed the Delhi High Court judgment..Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi appeared for Prasar Bharati while Senior Advocates P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid appeared for Star India Private Limited and Nimbus. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal represented the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)..Rohatgi had mentioned the matter before the Chief Justice yesterday who asked him to mention the matter at 2 pm today..When the matter came up for mentioning today in court room no. 7, Justice Gogoi, who seemed to have already made up his mind, issued notice without hearing any of parties and stayed the judgment of the Delhi High Court. He then sought to list the matter after six weeks. However, P Chidambaram objected to the same..“World Cups will come and go. We will hear you after six weeks”, said Justice Gogoi..Chidambaram prayed that the matter be heard and decided before the World Cup is over..“He is putting it for free to the cable operators. Please balance the equities so that we also get something. It only costs Rs. 18 to subscribe”, Chidambaram responded..Justice Gogoi relented and listed the matter for next Tuesday..The Delhi High Court, in its judgment passed on February 4, 2014 had barred Doordarshan from sharing the feed of World Cup matches received from Star India with private cable operators. The High Court, while doing so, had interpreted Section 3 of the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007 (Sports Act) and Section 8 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 (CTN Act)..Section 3 of the Sports Act mandates that other broadcasters have to share the feed of sporting events with Prasar Bharati. Section 8 of CTN Act requires cable operators to carry designated Doordarshan channels compulsorily. The contention of Star India was that such sharing of feed will make their content available for free resulting in revenue loss. They had, therefore, prayed for striking down the above provisions..The High Court had refused to strike down the said provisions. It had, however, held that,.“the live broadcasting signal shared by ESPN / STAR by virtue of Section 3 of the Sports Act with Prasar Bharati, shall not be carried in the designated Doordarshan channels under the must carry obligation cast by Section 8 of the CTN Act on cable operators.”.Read the judgment of the Delhi High Court below..Image taken from here.