High Court orders formulation of draft OTT policy within three months

The High Court on Monday ordered authorities concerned to prepare a draft of the policy within three months to monitor and extract VAT from broadcasting and distributing contents on over-the-top (OTT) platforms.

A High Court division bench comprising Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam passed the order after going through reports submitted by BTRC and police in this regard, reports BSS.

The court ordered the Information Secretary and Chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to prepare the draft policy within three-month and submit it before the court.

Supreme Court lawyer Tanvir Ahmed filed the writ on July 12, 2020, for deleting objectionable scenes from different web series on OTT platforms, and the court after holding a hearing on the matter, ordered BTRC and police to submit a report on the matter.

Today lawyer Khandaker Reza-e-Rakib submitted the BTRC report before the court, while Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy handed over the report submitted by the police.