The Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended the Delhi High Court verdict barring Doordarshan to share live feed of the 2015 Cricket World Cup with cable operators.





A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and P C Ghose stayed the order while fixing the challenge filed by the Union government and Prasar Bharati for detailed hearing on February 17. “The position of 2007, we are maintaining it for a while. We thought there is something to hear. We will not bring about a situation abruptly. This arrangement under which DD shows free feed has been there for the last seven years. Let it continue,” the bench said.



The ESPN and Star which won exclusive broadcasting rights, opposed the decision contending that they would suffer financially, if the order was stayed. Senior advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for Star India, made the plea for urgent hearing in the matter as the Cricket World Cup 2015 is to begin from February 14.



He said that staying of the judgment would make them suffer further in monetary terms. “It is not the last world cup. The money is not very important. But the judgment by the court would be the last one,” the bench said.



Chidambaram’s plea was supported by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Salman Khurshid, representing the BCCI and another private broadcaster respectively. The bench, which was initially inclined to put the matter for consideration after seven weeks, pointed out that for seven years the situation was like this and nothing would happen, if the same arrangement continued.



Allowing their plea, the court which put the matter for consideration on Tuesday, asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to come up with his response to the contention of the counsel, representing the private broadcasters.



Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati as well as Union government assailed the HC judgment barring it from sharing with cable operators through DD channels the live feed of the 2015 Cricket World Cup saying that it was against public interest and violated the mandate of the Sports Act and Cable TV Network Act.



The HC passed its verdict on February 4 on plea of BCCI, ESPN and Star which claimed that cable operators were getting live feed free through DD channels, resulting in loss of revenue.



