TataSky asks court to blackout Sun; stay order copy awaited

TataSky asks court to blackout Sun; stay order copy awaited

NEW DELHI: TataSky has moved an application with TDSAT today saying that Sun TV has neither complied with the sector tribunal‘s order of 2 April to stream its signals to the former, nor has it produced a copy of the stay order that it says it has procured from the Madras High Court on 5 April.

 

Sun had alleged that TataSky was aware of the stay, and yet had given out a report to indiantelevision.com saying it would move the court for blacking out Sun from all platforms for non-compliance of the court‘s orders, threatening to take legal action against the DTH player.

When asked if Sun had produced the stay order, TataSky‘s legal mandarins told indiantelevision.com: "The TDSAT order had been issued on Tuesday. If Sun TV had indeed procured the HC stay, as they claim, they had from Thursday to this morning to produce it to us because it directly concerns us.

"They had not produced any such order in all these days. This morning just before we were going to the court, the Sun official called us and said they have procured the order, and we said we have no problem, let them produce the order in the court."

 

TataSky sources said that at the court today, Sun official Vivek Sibbal was present and when TataSky counsel informed the court of its desire to move the application for penalising Sun TV, they argued that either the latter should produce the order or be penalised.

At the time of filing this report, TataSky counsel confirmed that Sun had not yet produced any copy of the order.

Asked about TataSky‘s statement that neither had they been told before this morning that Sun had procured a stay order, nor did they give a copy to TataSky, Sun TV legal head Anil Kumar stated: "Ramji Srinivasan is misleading the court and the media is suppressing the facts, because TataSky‘s lawyer was there at the Chennai court and knew the stay had been issued."

As to why Sun had said that Sibbal would hand over the copy to TataSky by this afternoon, Kumar denied that anything of that nature had been said at all. "We are yet to get a certified copy of the order," he said.

Asked why something as urgent as a stay order copy had not been issued by the court, which is normally done, Kumar said: "It does not happen like that in Chennai HC. First of all, there were three holidays from Friday.

"Besides, here the practice is that the judge will dictate the order, which will be typed and then signed by the judge and then we shall get it. We are still waiting for the copy of the order. TataSky can also get their copy by applying for it in the prescribed manner."