NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on May 18 the plea filed by telecom operator Reliance JIO (RJIO) against a Delhi High Court order asking Bharti Airtel to make changes to its advertisements offering "live and free access" to IPL coverage by carrying a disclaimer of a larger font size in a prominent and visible place.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud directed listing of the matter on Friday before an appropriate bench.
"List on May 18, 2018, before an appropriate bench, as per roster," it said after the matter was mentioned before it by advocate K R Sasiprabhu.
A division bench of the High Court on May 10 had modified its single judge's interim orders and questioned the maintainability of the suit filed by RJIO alleging that Airtel's advertisement was "deceptive and misleading".
The single judge in his May 2 order had asked Airtel to use the font of 12 pixels in print media and that too in a prominent and visible place and not at the bottom.
The high court had however allowed the first interim order of April 13 to continue to operate.
In the April 13 order, the single judge had asked Airtel to carry a disclaimer in bold stating that under its 'live and free access offer' the only subscription to video streaming platform Hotstar would be free and data charges according to the subscriber's plan would apply.
The May 2 order had said, "So far as the video clips/television advertisements are concerned the disclaimer should start running from the word the girl says 'Seasonal Pass-------------' and it should be displayed in sync with the voiceover.
The disclaimer in billboards and hoardings be also at a prominent place.
" During the hearing of the appeal by Airtel, the high court bench said it had "grave doubts" about maintainability of the suit by the RJIO.
The RJIO, in its suit, had claimed that the advertisements "falsely proclaim" that Airtel was offering "live and free" access to T20 cricket coverage and also "falsely represent that a subscriber need only obtain a 4G sim from the defendant company and download the Airtel TV app to obtain a virtual season pass, that is live and free access to T20 coverage".