Bombay High Court partially upholds validity of new tariff order issued by TRAI in 2020, strikes down one of the pricing conditions

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday partially upheld the validity of the New Tariff Order (NTO) issued by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in January 2020 which had prescribed price ceilings on the rates charged by television channels..While holding so, a Bench of Justices AA Sayed and Anuja Prabhudessai struck down one of the pricing conditions as unconstitutional..The condition that a-la-carte rates of each pay channel (MRP), forming part of a bouquet, shall in no case exceed three times the average rate of a pay channel of the bouquet of which such pay channel is a part, was struck down by the Court as unconstitutional..The Court upheld the pricing condition that the sum of the a-la-carte rates of the pay channels (MRP) forming part of a bouquet shall in no case exceed one and half times the rate of the bouquet of which such pay channels are a part..The verdict was pronounced in a batch of petitions filed by organisations such as Film and Television Producers Guild of India, Indian Broadcasting Foundation and broadcasters including Sony Pictures, Star India, Disney, Zee Entertainment, TV18, Asianet Star Communications and others..The petitioners had challenged the constitutional validity of the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2017 and Tariff Order, 2020 along with Section 11 of the TRAI Act..During the hearing, the Bench had asked TRAI if it could defer the implementation of the NTO. However, no interim orders were passed granting relief to the broadcasters..In August last year, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for TRAI, had orally assured the Court that no coercive actions would be taken against any non-compliant broadcasters till the pronouncement of the judgment..After the pronouncement today, the broadcasters sought for the order to be kept in abeyance for some time in order to enable them to study the verdict either for compliance or challenge. The Court conceded and granted a period of six weeks..Senior Advocates Janak Dwarkadas, Aspi Chinoy, Ravi Kadam, Darius Khambata and Navroz Seervai appeared for petitioner broadcasters.Senior Advocates Venkatesh Dhond and Vineet Naik appeared for TRAI along with SG Mehta.[Read judgment]