Madras High Court to rule on Kal Cables’ petition on Friday

The Madras High Court on Tuesday reserved judgment on the Kal Cables’ petition contesting the order of the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry cancelling its multi-system operator licence.

Justice V Ramasubramanian reserved judgment for Thursday (September 4).

Kal Cables, a multiple-system operator (MSO) providing cable television services under the Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV) brand had filed the writ petition contesting the order of the Ministry cancelling its licence on the grounds that it was not given an opportunity to present its case nor given a show-cause notice.

Security clearance The Ministry in a letter dated August 20, informed Kal Cables that in view of denial of security clearance by the Ministry of Home Affairs for registration as an MSO, the permanent licence granted to operate in Chennai and provisional licence to operate in DAS notified areas in phase-II cities was cancelled with immediate effect.

Kal Cables operates largely in Chennai with a subscriber base of around 10 lakh. Government counsel on Tuesday submitted a ‘confidential’ report from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to the judge and pleaded that on the basis of the report by the Union Home Ministry denying security clearance to Kal Cables, “on certain grounds explained therein” to Kal Cables, the Ministry had cancelled the licences. The Home Ministry had observed some adverse factors which might turnout to be harmful to the national security.

The counsel for Kal Cables submitted that he had no idea about the content of the confidential report. However, he argued that the major shareholder of the company was Priya Maran, wife of the former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran, who owns a 75 per cent stake in the company, and the remaining 25 per cent is owned by DK Enterprises.

Resignation As an applicant for MSO licence, the company complied with all requirements. He said Kalanidhi Maran, brother of the former union minister and Chairman of the Sun Group, had resigned from Kal Cables as Chairman and Director in September 2009.

Dayanidhi had resigned as the Director when he became Union Minister in 2004. And none of the management team members, board members or shareholders faces any legal issues, and there is no ground on which the licence could be cancelled. If the security clearance was not given to Kal Cables because of some reports about the Maran brothers, it would not be appropriate as neither of them is on the board of Kal Cables. The Ministry’s deadline for Kal Cables to cut the signal is Friday midnight.