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Star India Private Limited v. Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 1022Decided 30 Oct 2018
Civil Appeal Nos. 7326-7327 of 2018
Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman · Justice Navin Sinha

Background

Broadcasters challenged clauses of the 2017 TRAI Interconnection Regulations and Tariff Order, which, among other things, capped individual TV channel prices at Rs. 19, fixed bouquet-pricing formulas, and limited discounts and promotional bundling, arguing these rules improperly regulated program "content" (governed by the Copyright Act) rather than merely the "carriage"/transmission of signals, which is TRAI's proper domain under the TRAI Act. Before reaching the Supreme Court, a two-judge Division Bench of the Madras High Court had split: one judge struck down several clauses as beyond TRAI's power, while the Chief Justice dissented and upheld them; the matter then went to a third judge, M.M. Sundresh, J., who concurred with the dissenting view and upheld the regulations, resolving the reference in favour of TRAI.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the TRAI Act and the Copyright Act operate in different fields: the Copyright Act protects a broadcaster's proprietary interest in its own content, while the TRAI Act is a public-interest regulatory statute concerned with providing a level playing field between broadcasters and the ultimate consumer/subscriber in how broadcasting services are priced, packaged and delivered. It found that the broadcaster remains free to choose what content to air and how to price channels, so long as the pricing is non-discriminatory and does not unreasonably restrict a subscriber's choice between bouquet and a-la-carte options, and that the impugned Regulation and Tariff Order did not, in substance, trespass into copyright territory. To the extent of any genuine conflict, the Court held the TRAI Act, serving the broader public interest of both broadcasters and consumers, must prevail over the Copyright Act, which protects only the broadcaster's private property rights. Finding no merit in the appeals, the Court dismissed them and upheld the TRAI Regulations and Tariff Order.

Lesson Learnt

A sector regulator acting in the public interest (like TRAI, regulating how services reach consumers) can validly set rules on pricing, bundling and marketing of a service even where a rights-holder claims those rules touch on its separate intellectual-property interests: the two legal regimes can coexist, and the public-interest regulator's role is not automatically overridden by a private property right.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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