Reliance Jio to Delhi HC: ‘Airtel in contempt of court order’

The Delhi High Court today asked Bharti Airtel to comply with its April 13 order, directing the telecom giant to modify its advertisement which is aired during the Indian Premier League..Reliance Jio had approached the Delhi High Court with a plea stating that the Airtel advertisement, which allegedly offered “live and free”access to Twenty-Twenty cricket coverage, was deliberately deceptive, misrepresenting and misleading..It was submitted that the consequences of the advertisements would be wide-ranging and would impact a large number of unsuspecting subscribers, as well as have an unfair and undue adverse effect on other telecom service providers operating in India..Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar, appearing on behalf of Bharti Airtel had agreed to modify the impugned advertisement by prominently displaying the information regarding data consumption cost..Today, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi representing Reliance Jio, argued that the information had not been displayed as assured by Airtel. It is, therefore, in contempt as the order of the court has not been complied with..Appearing for Bharti Airtel, Senior Advocate P Chidambaram stated that the company had followed all the standards prescribed by the Advertising Standards Council of India and was not in contempt of the court..The Single Judge Bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna gave Bharti Airtel another opportunity to comply with the order of the Court and asked it to tweak the said advertisement as submitted in the previous hearing..The matter will be next heard on Friday.