Ad cap case adjourned till 23 July

The Delhi High Court yesterday adjourned the hearing in the ad cap case till 23 July. The case which was adjourned in January till March 24 has been given yet another date.

Today the petitioners of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) and regional channels informed the court of their representations to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) to amend the ad cap rule.

On the other hand, the interim order restraining the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from taking coercive action against petitioners including NBA and regional channels will continue. While the HC restrained TRAI from taking coercive action against petitioners, it also described a ceiling on advertisements as a ‘reasonable exercise’.

In the earlier hearing, the court said that the hearing will happen on 24 March, due to backlog of cases. Well this time also there has been no substantial decision.

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.

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.