HATHWAY CABLE AND DATACOM LTD Vs. NEO SPORTS BROADCASTS PVT LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) VIDE this Petition, the Petitioner seeks to impugn the notice dated 28.8.2008 issued to it by the Respondent as well as the public issued by the Respondent on 12.9.2008 threatening disconnection of signals on grounds of non-provision of the details of the subscribers and non-clearance of its dues towards subscription charges.

(2.) The case of the Petitioner, Hathway Cable & Datacom Pvt. Ltd. (Hathway) who claims to be a Multi System Operator (MSO), is that it had entered into an Agreement with the Respondent, Neo Sports Broadcast Pvt. Ltd. (NSB) on 12.4.2008 wherein it agreed to pay a subscription amount of Rs. 43,74,985 per month, plus service tax thereon, to the Respondent for the latter's signals in the whole territory of India, which included within its scope all the existing networks of the Petitioner, including Joint Ventures, Distributors and "Bhaskar all India". It is the case of the Petitioner that while it has been receiving feed from the Respondent, the Respondent failed to raise proper invoices as agreed to between the two parties, which problem was at the base of the present dispute. It is contended that the Respondent raised a single consolidated invoice for the month of April, 2008 which was paid by the Petitioner to avoid any dispute. The Petitioner requested the Respondent to issue separate invoices and also sent a list of entities operating in India which are either owned by the Petitioner or are its Joint Ventures/Subsidiaries.

(3.) THE Petitioner contends that despite the above correspondence, the Respondent issued a public notice dated 12.9.2008 alleging failure to provide the details of subscribers and sending the monthly Subscriber Line Report as well as non-clearance of dues towards subscription charges. THE Petitioner states that it had replied to this notice on 20.9.2008 requesting for independent invoices. Besides, its contention is that the public notice was based on wrong facts, with a view to causing wrongful loss to the Petitioner.