HC orders notice to Trai on ad norms

Madurai: The Madras High Court Tuesday ordered notices to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the secretary of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology on a plea seeking a ban on advertisements by private channels violating the TRAI's advertisement rules.

A division bench of the court's Madurai bench, comprising justices N Kirubakran and S S Sundar, posted the case for hearing on March 19, pending reply from the Centre.

The petitioner, I Mohammed Razvi, claimed that under the new Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) rules, private channels were going to collect money from subscribers to view their programmes.

They should telecast advertisements only for 12 minutes from 7PM to 10PM, but most of them were violating the rules and were advertising products for more time, he claimed.

They should not show advertisements beyond the prescribed time limit as it disturbs the subscribers, the petitioner submitted.

Similarly, news channels were also disturbing the viewers with commercial scrolls.

The petitioner said he had given a representation to the TRAI to regulate the advertisements according to rules, but it was not taking action.

Hence, the court should intervene and direct the TRAI to regulate the advertisements and prevent it from being shown beyond the prescribed time limit, he submitted.