Madras HC reserves order on CAS

The Madras High Court on Wednesday reserved its order on a batch of petitions challenging the Centre's notification indefinitely suspending implementation of the Conditional Access System in Chennai and south Delhi.

A multi-system operator, Sumangali Cable Vision, a unit of the private Sun TV channel, the Cable TV Operators' Welfare Association and two others had petitioned the High Court against the February 27 central notification, which was issued on the Telecom Regulatory Authority 's recommendation.

The petitioners had contended that crores of rupees had been spent on set-top boxes and other control systems required for implementation of the CAS.

While the state government had sought scrapping of CAS, which was introduced in the state from September one last, on the ground that it paved the way for 'the patent discrimination in charging monthly fees'.