FM Phase III auctions: Delhi HC breather for Red FM

In a major relief to the Sun Group, the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Centre to allow the embattled group to participate in mock auctions to renew FM licences as well as regular auctions commencing from July 27.

As is known, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) had rejected security clearance to Red FM due to the pending investigations and allegations against Kalanithi and Dayanidhi Maran, which made the FM player ineligible to participate in the e-auctions for FM Phase III.

In view of the urgency of the matter, Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva said they would pronounce the order tomorrow (26 July) at 11.30 am.

The order was passed on the basis of a plea filed by the Digital Radio Broadcasting Ltd asking the Court to grant permission to Red FM for participating in the mock auctions or to stay the upcoming auctions.

The court decided to deliver the order on Sunday because the e-auctions that are scheduled to start 9.30am on Monday can not be deferred and the software used for it has to be configured at least 12 hours before the auctions start. “To that extent, the result is already public, and no useful objective would be served by keeping the results in a sealed cover”, he said.

The Sun Group counsel also mentioned about permitting Reliance’s Big FM to take part in the auctions even though the network was also under serious charges.

The ministry had earlier organised for training of the pre-qualified bidders of first batch of Private FM Radio Phase III last week for the 21 companies that have emerged as pre-qualified bidders.

The court, during arguments, asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta whether the government has examined what would be the outcome of denying security clearance to a company, as it would amount to “blacklisting” it or making it a “pariah”, as no one would want to do business with such an entity.

The petitions also said the company was not involved in any dispute with the nation’s security, nor had it broadcast anything that affected the security of the nation.

“Non-inclusion of the company’s name in the list of companies eligible to take part in auctions is nothing but closing the entire FM stations run by it for extraneous, illegal and mala fide reasons”, said the group in the petitions.