- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) It will be convenient to answer the questions of law that arise in the present case, before we advert to the factual controversy between the parties. The questions of law are: (1 Has an organiser or producer of any event a right to get the event telecast through an agency of his choice whether national or foreign (2 Has such organiser a choice of the agency of telecasting, particularly when the exercise of his right, does not make demand on any of the frequencies owned, commanded or controlled by the government or the government agencies like the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) or Doordarshan (DD) (3 Can such an organiser be prevented from creating the terrestrial signal and denied the facility of merely uplinking the terrestrial signal to the satellite owned by another agency whether foreign or national (4 What, if any, are the conditions which can be imposed by the government Department which in the present case is the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) for (a) creating terrestrial signal of the event, and (b) granting facilities of uplinking to a satellite not owned or controlled by the government or its agencies
(3.) On answers to THESe questions depend the answers to the incidental questions such as (i) whether the government or the government agencies like DD in the present case, have a monopoly of creating terrestrial signals and of telecasting them or refusing to telecast them, (ii whether the government or government agencies like DD can claim to be the host broadcaster for all events whether produced or organised by it or by anybody else in the country and can insist upon the organiser or the agency for telecasting engaged by him, to take the signal only from the government or government agency and telecast it only with its permission or jointly with it.;