The Sun Group, south India’s largest media conglomerate entangled in a series of legal issues , got a major relief from the Madras High Court on Thursday which allowed the Kalanidhi and Dayanidhi Marans owned group to participate in the auction process of the FM Radio stations. The phase III auction process begins on July 27.
Justice M Satyanarayanan said the results of the auction process should be put in a sealed cover till further orders. It is expected that the interim order by the court would further delay the auction process of FM Radio stations.
The Maran Brothers had approached the Madras High Court with a plea to quash the order of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting preventing it from participating in the auction process because of denial of security clearance by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The MHA in its order had denied security clearance to the Sun Group because of a series of cases faced by the Marans which include the Aircel-Maxis deal, monely laundering cases and the BSNl illegal telephone exchange installed at the residence of Dayanidhi Maran during his tenure as union telecommunications minister (2004 to 2007).
PS Raman, Mohan Parasaran and ARl Sundaresan, appearing for the Maran Brothers contended that security clearance could not be denied to the Sun Group since the cases filed against them on various counts were yet to be decided by the court.