NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is expected to hear on 8 May the appeal by Star India and Vijay TV challenging the order of the Madras High Court refusing to stay the DAS tariff order of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

A bench headed by Chief Justice J S Kehar had earlier this week said the matter would come up for hearing in due course.  

Meanwhile, TRAI TV reference interconnect offer (RIO) and Quality of service order (QoS) came into effect from 2 May following the order of the High Court.

High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar had directed the main petition by Star India and Vijay TV to be heard on 12 June. However, the court had said Section 3 of the Tariff order and all other consequences of such implementation/enforcement would be subject to the outcome of the main petition.

The broadcasters had challenged the order of TRAI on the grounds that it had no jurisdiction over content, and that actually came under Copyright Act, which is not administered by TRAI.

Apart from the Tariff order which had originally been issued on 10 October last year, the regulator also issued the DAS Interconnect Regulations which had been issued on 14 October last year, and the Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Digital Addressable Systems) Regulations which had been issued on 10 October last year.

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