Govt to go to court if HC order goes in Nimbus favour

New Delhi, Feb 8 (UNI) The government will challenge any court order in favour of Nimbus stand that it would share only delayed feeds of today's India-Sri Lanka ODI match and other sports events with Doordarshan.

The Delhi High Court is hearing the case at around 1400 hrs today while the ODI is starting from 1430 hrs.

''If such an order comes from court, we will challenge it in the light of the Ordinance which has been promulgated making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share live feeds of important sports events with the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati,'' Joint Secertary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Baijendranath told UNI here this morning.

He said that there was a law of the land in force and if any broadcaster violates that it can be punished by various means including a ban.

Nobody has challenged the ordinanace and no courts has passed any order in this respect, so its provisions are binding for all, he said.

The talks with Nimbus and the Prasar Bharati over the issue held yesterday here again failed, Prasar Bharati sources said.

So despite the Ordinanace titled the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Ordinance, 2007 being in force, uncertainty prevailed as to whether Doordarshan will be getting live sports feed of today's match The Ordinance that was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Thursday last and given Presidential assent on Friday night, has been promulgated from retrospective effect, dating back to Nov 11, 2005.

UNI