HC asks govt to implement CAS in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata by '06-end

NEW DELHI: The decision to roll out the controversial conditional access system (CAS) in the four metros, which gave the BJP a headache during its term in power, is now likely to trouble the UPA government as well.

In a significant decision, the Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to implement CAS in three metros — New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai — before December 31, ’06.

Chennai is the only place where the set top box (STB) technology for viewing pay channels is in place. A division bench of the New Delhi High Court asked the Centre on Wednesday to issue a notification for the implementation of CAS within a week.

The bench, headed by acting Chief Justice Vijinder Jain and Justice Kailash Gambhir, has granted 22 weeks’ time to the ministry of information and broadcasting to implement the scheme.

The judges recorded an undertaking from the Union government’s counsel and the joint secretary in the ministry of information and broadcasting on implementation and also rejected the government’s plea to grant it 26 weeks for CAS implementation.

The bench passed a direction on an appeal filed by the Centre challenging a March 10 order of the same court, directing the Union government to implement CAS within four weeks and pay a penalty of Rs 1 lakh for delaying the implementation of CAS from July ’03.

Former law minister Ram Jethmalani, appearing for the petitioner Hathway Communications, argued that the Centre was playing truant with the courts by repeatedly seeking time for implementing the scheme. He pointed out that a notification for the roll out of CAS was issued in ’03.

Mr Jethmalani complained that it was under the Centre’s direction that private cable operators, multi-system operators (MSOs) and others had been forced to spend Rs 1,000 crore for importing STBs.

The senior lawyer added that the Centre was “surreptitiously” seeking to repeal section 4A of the Cable Television Network Regulation Act, which mandated implementation of CAS. He contended that the proposed Broadcasting Regulation Bill being introduced in Parliament by the UPA government sought to repeal section 4A of the Cable Act.

The BJP government, which mooted the idea of implementing CAS and amended the Cable Television Act for this purpose in ’02 was unable to get the scheme off the ground due to widespread protests from consumers and broadcasters.

While consumers complained about the cost of acquiring an STB, broadcasters were not enthusiastic about losing consumers under the pay channel system. Only a section of cable operators and MSOs saw in CAS the chance to break the monopoly of broadcasters.

However, with the idea facing opposition in all four metros where its implementation was planned in the first phase, the former BJP government was forced to issue a suspension of the notification of CAS indefinitely at the end of February ’04. In Chennai, however, the CAS roll out was enforced by a high court decision.