Supreme Court Allows Prasar Bharti to Share World Cup Feeds with Doordarshan

The Supreme Court of India on February 10, 2015 stayed the execution of  an order of the High Court of Delhi that barred Prasar Bharti, the statutory body set-up as the public sector broadcaster, from sharing the feeds of the upcoming 2015 edition of the Cricket World Cup with Doordarshan. Now, in terms of order, Prasar Bharti is allowed to share the live feed of the World Cup matches with private cable operators.

A bench of the Apex Court consisting of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Prafulla Chandra Pant stayed the order of the High Court of Delhi issued last week (February 4, 2015) barring the National Broadcaster Doordarshan from sharing live feed of the World Cup matches received from Star India with private cable operators.

The High Court had based its decision on the interpretation of Section 3 of the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007 (“Sports Signals Act”) and Section 8 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 (“Cable TV Networks Act”). The Sports Signals Act mandates that the broadcasters are mandated to share the feed of the sporting events with Prasar Bharti. Further, the Cable TV Networks Act requires cable operators to carry Doordarshan channels compulsorily over their networks.

Star India had contended that the said legislations result in revenue losses owing to free sharing of the feed and prayed for striking down of the said provisions. While, the High Court bench comprising of Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru refused to strike down the said provisions, it however ruled that the live broadcasting feed shared by ESPN or Star India with Prasar Bharti shall not be carried on or shared with the Doordarshan Channels in terms of the must carry obligations stipulated under the Cable TV Networks Act.

As per media reports, the broadcasters have submitted that after an investment of around INR 38 billion, they are suffering heavy losses. The broadcasting companies have claimed that the legal dispute over the telecast rights has been going on since 2007. Star India was of the view that this would negatively affect the broadcasting of the forthcoming World Cup, especially when the order of the Delhi High Court was in its favour.

As per certain news reports, Prasar Bharti is of the view that technically it would not be possible to segregate airwaves for Doordarshan channels, which is available on both terrestrial and satellite networks.

Since, the Indian law mandates that two Doordarshan channels are to be mandatorily carried on cable networks, thus the operators for these cable networks could access sporting events on two different channels, i.e. Doordarshan and ESPN or Star, as the case may be. However, while ESPN or Star requires a subscription fee to be paid, Doordarshan is without any charge. This causes subscription loss to the private broadcaster. The Delhi High Court, while deciding, had taken note of the enormous broadcasting fee paid by ESPN or Star for events like these.

The Supreme Court bench has also asked Star India and ESPN to bring alternative proposals to re-solve the present dispute regarding the telecast of the World Cup 2015 matches. The Supreme Court takes the case for further hearing on February 17, 2015.

E-Commerce Likely to Come under Nine Ministries and Departments

The Indian Government is considering a proposal for the regulation of the e-commerce industry, which presently is facing criticism for heavy discounting, poor products, and delayed delivery services. The infuriated growth rate of the sector has startled the traditional brick and mortar businesses and demands have been raised for an oversight of the business practices. As per media reports, a Government panel would soon consider a proposal for potential regulation of the sector in India.

According to media reports, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has issued a note for consideration of a Committee of Secretaries, citing its inclination towards developing a level-playing field between online and offline retailers. In the absence of specific regulations for online trade as compared to the brick and mortar (offline) business, that are set-up after a tedious process of licenses, approvals and permits, together with the supervision of Government authorities, presently there exists vast discrepancies between online and offline business.

The note proposes that e-commerce involves diverse activities, thus making it too complex to be under the purview of a single department or agency and necessitating a clear demarcation of activities. The draft note broadly identifies the following departments / ministries and earmarks responsibilities for the regulatory overview:-

Taxation	Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance
Foreign exchange and banking	Reserve Bank of India
Allegations and complaints regarding predatory pricing, unfair trade practice and criminal fraud	Ministry of Corporate Affairs
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy	Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry
Data protection and cyber security	Department of Electronics and Information Technology
Advertising and guidelines	Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
Consumer grievances and consumer protection	Ministry of Consumer Affairs

As per news reports, the government estimates indicates that the e-commerce sector in India is expected to reach INR 504 billion in sales by 2015-16 (excluding online sales of tickets), which would be up from around INR 139 billion sales in 2012-13. This would imply an annual growth of 50-55%. The ‘Big Billion Day’ sale by Flipkart last year turned out to be a controversial one, attracting complaints from consumers, allegations of predatory pricing and resulted in traditional retailers lobbying against the online stores. The American giant Amazon has also faced scrutiny from state tax departments over the warehouses that store products from various sellers. Some e-commerce retail operators, including Flipkart and Amazon, have in the past faced tax evasion allegations.

The relevant ministries / departments have been asked to give their view on the issues before the same are taken by the Committee of Secretaries.

Supreme Court Directs Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to Refrain Showing Ads for Sex Determination Tests

The Supreme Court of India has recently issued orders directing Google, Microsoft and Yahoo search engines not to advertise or sponsor any advertisement relating to sex determination tests since the same are in violation of the law.

The bench comprising of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Prafulla C. Pant directed, as an interim measure, that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft shall not advertise or sponsor any advertisement which would violate the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994. The order also directed the three internet giants to withdraw advertisements forthwith, in case the companies were carrying any such advertisements presently.

The said interim order has been passed during hearing of a petition filed by Sabu Mathew George in the year 2008 that sought direction for prohibiting sex determination test advertisements on the Internet. The court based the conclusion on the submission of the central government that the three search engines have relevant technology and deep-domain knowledge and expertise to block and/or filter words, phrases, expressions and sponsored links in this regard.

The Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 under provisions of Section 22 prohibits advertisements related to pre-natal determination of sex and stipulates punishment for contravention of the said provision.

Counsel appearing for Google, told the court that the Internet was an uncensored medium and ordering the blocking of the information is very dangerous as it amounts to pre-censorship. In this relation to the contention of pre-censorship, the Court observed that censorship and legal provisions were two different things and anything can take the colour and flavour of advertisement. Human mind is ingenious and there is a scope for mischief. Counsel Divan informed the court that Google has already clamped down on such advertisements promoting sex determination techniques.

On behalf of the government it was said that the government can block links and stop showing any kind of thing that relates to sex selection and eventual abortion, if the URL and the IP addresses are given along with other information by the companies. However, alternatively it was submitted that these companies themselves can block these ads since they have access to their respective mathematical algorithms all the time.

The internet companies, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft contended that they were not in violation of the law since they merely provide a ‘corridor’ for content over the internet. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court said that an effort has to be made by these parties so that nothing contrary to the laws of India is advertised or shown on these websites.

The Court directed that matter to be listed for further hearing on February 11. However, in the meanwhile Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have been directed to carry out the Court’s order on their respective policy page and terms and conditions of service page.