Seems like the deadline of March 31, set by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, making mandatory installation of set top box (STB) by cable operators, would be extended once more.
The deadline has already been extended thrice earlier; the first deadline was fixed for October 31, 2011 that was extended to June 30, 2012 and then November 1, 2012. later, this was also extended for March 31, 2013.
High Court of Madhya Pradesh has served notices to the Union government, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and others on a PIl for direction to extend the March 31 deadline for mandatory installation of set top box (STB) by cable operators for television viewing.
Three cities of Madhya Pradesh including Bhopal, Jabalpur and Indore are covered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting order of November 11, 2011 for mandatory digitisation of cable television by March 31, 2013.
The PIl asked the court to direct the respondents not to take any coercive action including stoppage of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting by permitting it to run in the present format so that the cable connection holders can view all channels beyond the deadline.
A division bench comprising Justice Ajit Singh and Justice Sanjay Yadav directed the respondents to file a reply to the PIl within two weeks. The PIl cited the example of Jabalpur where only 1.25 lakh STBs have been installed as of now, out of over 6 lakh television connections with the cable operators.
Petitioner’s counsel Greeshm Jain said the cable operators have run short of STBs and even if they start installing 2,500 STBs every day starting from today, they would require one year to install them at every house. He, therefore, argued that the deadline for installation of STBs should be extended.
Narendra Jain, ex-president of District Bar Association Jabalpur, has filed the PIl. Notably, the Indian government had approved an ordinance in October 2011, phasing out analogue cable networks and makes digitization of cable networks mandatory by 2014, on the recommendations of the TRAI.