The Madras High Court has directed state government-owned Arasu Cable Television Corporation to convene a meeting of its Board of Directors and place minutes of its Price Negotiation Committee meeting in April this year to fix a carriage fee and allotment of slots for free to air and pay channels and take a decision by July 31.
Disposing of writ petitions by Sun TV network and one of its shareholders Neelakantan Ramanathan, Justice V Ramasubramanian said if no decision was taken on or before July 31, the petitioners were at liberty to revive their prayer for an interim direction. It would however, be subject to the Arasu Cable Television corporation’s objections to maintainability of the petition, the Judge said.
The petitioners sought a direction to Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable Television Corporation Limited to issue subscription order as per the terms finalised and price fixed for the petitioners’ pay channels by the corporation’s PNC at the April 3 meeting.The petitioners said since no decision had been taken after discussions with PNC, its channels were not being transmitted through the state TV cable corporation.
