New Delhi: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has rejected a petition by multisystem operator seeking to recover Rs 10.5 lakh from Sai Prasad Media Pvt Ltd which broadcasts 'News Express' amongst others.

Chairman justice Aftab Alam and member B B Srivastava said: “We find that the whole exercise of execution of channel placement agreement and subsequent behaviour of petitioner as well as the respondent is completely opaque and ambiguous to say the least and hence non-maintainable.”

The petitioner had failed to produce any invoice which it might have raised or any authentic statement of accounts.

Meanwhile, Sai Media had filed an affidavit stating it had paid three-fourths of the amount due but produced a document. The tribunal felt its "authenticity was doubtful".

The case of the petitioner had been that it had executed a placement agreement with Sai Media at the behest of the respondent for a period of 12 months beginning from 28 July 2012 and terminating on 27 July 2012.  The consideration money was Rs 14 lakhs plus service tax; and it was payable in four equal installments. In consideration of this amount the petitioner was supposed to place the respondent's channel 'News Express' on 'S' band.  The petitioner has stated that it complied with all its obligations.under the channel placement agreement by carrying/placing the channel of the respondent at the desired frequency/band to the complete satisfaction of the respondent. It is also stated that the representatives/officials of the respondent company regularly visited the network/units of the petitioner in various• areas of Delhi.