CAS to be introduced in rest of Delhi and other metros in 6 months

New Delhi, Apr 12 (UNI) The Central Government has informed the Delhi High Court that it would introduce Conditional Access System (CAS) for viewing television (TV) all over the Capital and other metropolises within six months.

During the hearing of a petition filed by Hathway Cable, Additional Solicitor General(ASG) P P Malhotra submitted that CAS has been implemented in South Delhi from January 1, 2007.

The viewers in Chennai had been watching encrypted channels through CAS, he informed the court.

Malhotra said steps are being taken to introduce the technology in all the metropolises and rest of Delhi within six months.

A division bench of Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Sanjiv Khanna disposed of the petition saying that the government was taking steps to implement the direction of the court.

Senior Counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for the petitioner had argued that the company had incurred a huge loss by manufacturing instruments for CAS after the notification for the implementation of the technology in the country in February 2004.

The government did not introduce the technology in time and compelled many companies to suffer the loss, he had pleaded.

Implementation of CAS on the prescribed date of implementation would have led a complete blackout of all pay channels, said Malhotra.

Neither the broadcasters nor multi service operators(MSO) and local cable operators would have been in a position to reach to the viewers, he stated.

''The act of the authority would have been injurious to the interests of consumers for whom the CAS has been designed...," he said.

''It was extremely important to examine the entire issue, in a holistic manner, in order to safeguard the consumers' interests and facilitate the consumers to make an informed choice.

In case CAS was implemented earlier in the Capital, Mumbai and Kolkata, the introduction of Direct-to-Home (DTH) service would have been affected.

DTH is a better technology,'' the government submitted.

Malhotra said the government was trying to protect the interest of the consumers by implementing CAS technology and Direct-to-Home (DTH) service simultaneously in the country.

The Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, was amended by Parliament for the introduction of better technology in the country.

UNI