NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) directed the multi-system operator (MSO) Akash Tori Infocom Services to allow Star India to examine its headends in Durgapur on 18 and 19 November.

TDSAT chairman Justice Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava listed the matter for 27 November.

The order was given after the Tribunal was informed by Akash Tori counsel Radhika Gupta that the MSO had not yet received some set top boxes (STBs) it had ordered.

When the matter had first come up on 19 October, the Tribunal had noted that Akash Tori was a 'fledgling multi-system operator' and ‘Star India cannot have any objection to give its signals on RIO terms to it,’ permitting Star to examine the headend of the MSO.

However, Star India counsel Arjun Natarajan told the Tribunal today that the MSO had not given a convenient date as instructed by the Tribunal and it was only when the broadcaster wrote to the MSO that it had referred to the STBs, which were yet to arrive.

Thereupon, Justice Alam queried as to why an MSO should file a petition for signals when it was not ready to receive them. The MSO had filed a petition seeking Star’s signals in digital mode on RIO terms.