The apex court termed the plea of Mohd Arif, Managing Director of Channel One, as "ex-facie frivolous and vexatious" which deserves dismissal with exemplary cost.
The channel had filed an intervention application in the ongoing hearing of the case in which the apex court had in May 2011 initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Roy for allegedly interfering with the probe in the 2G spectrum case.
"The CD on which reliance has been shown has not been verified or authenticated from the laboratory about the conversation," a bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan said and added that "this court cannot enlarge the scope of the contempt matter.
"Application is dismissed. The hearing on the application has resulted in the loss of time of the court," the bench said while imposing a cost of Rs one lakh on the channel which will be deposited with the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee (SCLSC) and in case of failure, the amount would be recovered from arrears of land revenue of the channel.
Identical argument was put forward by senior advocate Rajiv Dhavan, who was appearing for Upendra Rai, a scribe associated with Sahara India News Network and facing the contempt proceedings.