STAR TV INDIA CHAIRMAN GETS REPREIVE
FROM COURT
The obscenity litigation against Star TV India
owner Rupert Murdoch and chairman R. Basu may finally be coming
to an end. A Delhi High Court stayed trial proceedings against
Basu last week. Basu had appealed to the court that the case
be quashed.
Both Basu and Murdoch have been embroiled in
a suit filed by a Delhi advocate against them in 1996. The
advocate had claimed that Star TV was airing obscene movies
late at night on its television network. This was in violation
of the Indian Cinematographic Act, the advocate had told the
court and hence had said that Murdoch, Basu and several cable
operators should be prosecuted.
Since then, the court has tried its best to
bring Murdoch to India to stand trial, even instructing the
ministry of external affairs to serve summons on the media
baron in his residences in Australia and the US. It has met
with no success. Since then, Murdoch has been labeled an absconder
by the courts and hence is likely to be arrested the moment
he lands on Indian soil. Basu, however, made his appearance
in court when he had been summoned earlier.
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