Supreme Court allows transfer of DTH licence fee petition from Kerala HC

MUMBAI: Moving one step closer to the long-fought battle on licence fees between direct-to-home (DTH) operators and the government of India, the Supreme Court has allowed the transfer of a related case to the apex court from the Kerala High Court.

“Having heard the learned counsel for the parties and gone through these transfer petitions filed under Article 139A of the Constitution of India and considering the facts and circumstances of the case, we deem it fit and proper to transfer the matters mentioned in Prayer (a) of the Transfer Petitions from the High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam to this Court,” Supreme Court said in an order dated on 23 September.

The transfer of the petition will help DTH players to pave the way for the long-pending new DTH licenses.

Last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had reiterated most of its recommendations in response to back reference received from the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) on the authority’s recommendations related to the new direct to home (DTH) licence. The authority had issued recommendations on ‘Issues related to New DTH Licenses’ on 23 July 2014.