(27 April 2007 8:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today dismissed the special leave petition filed by TataSky in the case against Sun TV, stating that since the Madras High Court has taken cognizance of the matter and issued notice to TataSky, the SLP could not be allowed.

The two-judge Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and DK Jain said the parties were free to approach the sector tribunal TDSAT for an early hearing if they felt the issue needed urgent resolution.

TataSky had filed an appeal with the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunals earlier asking it to order Sun TV to give its signals to the DTH player on an a la carte basis and would be paid for the actual number of TataSky viewers, and not its entire subscription base.

The tribunal had passed an interim order that Sun should give the signals, but Sun TV had not complied with it and instead, moved a modification application saying that TataSky must first make it clear and prove that it would also actually give the signals to its subscribers on an a la carte basis.

Upon this modification application, TDSAT had strictly warned Sun that its interim orders had to be complied with first and ordered Sun to give the signals to TataSky within seven days.

In the meanwhile, Sun TV had approached Madras High Court for a stay on the TDSAT order for giving signals to TataSky.

The Madras High Court had issued the stay saying that since a modification application is pending with TDSAT, the enforcement of its interim order was not warranted.

Senior counsel for TataSky Arun Jaitley had said that the case was urgent and the court said that the parties could approach TDSAT for an early hearing.

The next hearing of the case on the modification application is slated for May 1 and for the final hearing TDSAT has already fixed the date as May 11.