NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has listed a petition for 30 April by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) seeking to ensure that digitisation is implemented as scheduled and without hindrance.

The case had been listed for the last two days but could not be heard because of pending business. On mention by counsel for the petitioner, the case was listed for hearing on the last day of the month.

When the special leave petition had been mentioned before the Court on 16 April, it had declined the prayer to stay any of the proceedings in the various High Courts as it was informed that the Karnataka High Court judgment on the subject was due. The bench presided over by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir therefore felt it would await the judgment of the High Court before taking up the matter.

The Karanataka, Gujarat and Allahabad High Courts have since dismissed as having no merit to the petitions seeking extension of the switch-off dates for Phase II of digitisation in Bengaluru, Mysore, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara, Agra, Allahabad, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut and Varanasi.

Petitions challenging digitisation are currently pending in the Madras, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh High Courts. These affect the cities of Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam Bhopal, Indore, and Jabalpur.