10 + 2 Ad cap case adjourned till January 21st, 2015

The 10 +2 ad-cap case has been adjourned by the Delhi High Court till January 21st next year. This has given broadcasters a relief window.

The last hearing which was on 25th September said that the High Court will give a final hearing on 20th November for the 10+2 ad cap case.

However, it was learnt today that the case is adjourned to a future date. Apparently, this happened because the High Court did not have time to hear the case. The court said that there are a few more priority cases pending. The next hearing will be on 21st January, 2015.

Like known, some of the parties to this case are B4U, News Broadcasters Association (NBA), 9X Media, Sun TV Network, TV Vision, E24 and Kalaignar TV against the TRAI.

In an earlier session, Advocate Saket Singh, the advocate for TRAI and the respondent in this case, pointed out that in some cases; few broadcasters have been found violating the ad cap rules, with the violations sometimes extending to almost 20 hours a day.

In the December 2013 hearing, the Delhi High Court had given a three month temporary relief to the broadcasters when it asked TRAI not to take a coercive action against them for not following the 12 minute ad cap mandate. At that time the broadcasters were asked to send their weekly advertisement data to TRAI. This order was passed following a writ petition filed by the broadcasters on December 17, 2013 to get the ad cap reviewed quickly.