NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court hearing on a clutch of petitions on conditional access system (CAS) was inconclusive today, and it was decided that the hearing would continue tomorrow.

The central government that has been made a respondent
to the petitions, reportedly, failed to come up with convincing explanations as to why Delhi was denotified and taken off the CAS rollout roadmap.

The chief justice of the high court, who is hearing the case, however, has allowed the government to furnish more details. He has directed that the official records regarding CAS and various meetings held relating to it, be produced in the court tomorrow.

The petitions against the government have been filed by Zee Telefilms cable arm Siti Cable, the Delhi-based
Cable Networks Association and an individual.

By and large, the petitioners have said that a deferment of CAS in Delhi has lead to, and can further escalate financial losses for multi-system operators and cable operators who had invested in infrastructure after assurances from the government on CAS.

The individual Delhi resident, however, has petitioned that he should get the cable service at Rs 72 (excluding local taxes) comprising all the free-to-air channels as had been envisaged during a CAS regime.