E.A. No. 1 of 2014 in Broadcasting Petition No. 491 of 2012, EA No. 1 of 2015 in Broadcasting Petition No. 23 of 2012 (M.A. No. 466 of 2015), E.A. No. 6 of 2015 in Broadcasting Petition No. 67 of 2012, E.A. No. 8 of 2015 in Broadcasting Petition No. 107 of 2013 (M.A. No. 467 of 2015), E.A. No. 16 of 2014 in Broadcasting Petition No. 246 of 2012.... Case: Den Networks Ltd. and Ors. Vs Mahuaa Media Pvt. Ltd. and Ors.. TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal)
Case Number E.A. No. 1 of 2014 in Broadcasting Petition No. 491 of 2012, EA No. 1 of 2015 in Broadcasting Petition No. 23 of 2012 (M.A. No. 466 of 2015), E.A. No. 6 of 2015 in Broadcasting Petition No. 67 of 2012, E.A. No. 8 of 2015 in Broadcasting Petition No. 107 of 2013 (M.A. No. 467 of 2015), E.A. No. 16 of 2014 in Broadcasting Petition No. 246 of 2012...
Counsel For Respondents: Ramji Srinivasan, Sr. Advocate, Vineet Bhagat, Vivek, D. Gupta, Radhika Gupta and Puneet Jain, Advocates
Judges Aftab Alam, J. (Chairperson) and B.B. Srivastava, Member
Issue Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) - Sections 51, 51(d)
Judgement Date June 14, 2016
Court TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal)
Aftab Alam, J. (Chairperson)
Mahua Media Pvt. Ltd. (Mahua), a broadcaster of TV channels is faced with execution proceedings in respect of five decrees in favour of different distributors of TV channels. Leaving aside interests, the principal amounts alone in the five decrees add up to the sum of Rs. 33,44,50,344/-. A brief description of the decree holders and their respective decrees is given below in the form of a table:
As may be noticed from the above table, the execution proceedings against Mahua commenced with the filing of the Execution Application on behalf of DEN on 15 January 2014. Later on, the other four decree holders joined in the proceedings with their respective execution applications filed on different dates, leading to a consolidated proceeding against Mahua on behalf of all the five decree holders.
Mr. P.K. Tiwari, the Managing Director of Mahua, after his release from custody on the basis of an order passed by the Bombay High Court1, first appeared in person before the Tribunal in connection with the present proceedings on 19 March 2015. Since then, he has filed several affidavits undertaking to pay the decretal amounts to the five decree holders following highly deferred schemes of payment. No payment, however, has been made to any decree holder in terms of the undertakings given by Mr. Tiwari. In hindsight it appears that the affidavits were filed with a view to delude the Tribunal and to somehow delay the discharge of the decrees; there was no intention to make any payments to the decree holders even at the time of filing the affidavits. Mr. Tiwari has not only persistently breached the undertaking on oath but from the different affidavits filed by him it appears (as is noted in the orders passed from time to time) that Mr. Tiwari made deliberate misrepresentation of facts and tried to suppress some relevant facts from the Tribunal as regards the bank accounts of Mahua and the money received on its behalf from advertisements and other sources even during the current proceedings. Even while denying any payment to the decree holders Mr. Tiwari has been spending money for running the TV channel broadcast by Mahua and this fact he successfully withheld from the Tribunal all this while.
It was in these circumstances that in course of hearing on 30 May 2016, the Tribunal expressed the view that though the breach of undertakings submitted on oath and the other acts of omission and commission by Mr...