”Keeping in view the aforementioned backdrop and furthermore not being oblivious of the principles of level playing field as has been advocated by the Supreme Court in Reliance Energy Ltd. and Ors. vs. Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd. (2007)8SCC 381, we must also keep in mind what would be meant by a nondiscriminatory term. Is it in absolute lines? Should it not form the class on the basis of the same homogeneous group? If that be so, even a sub-classification between two such groups namely big MSOs and small MSOs and who, thus are operating in big towns and semi-urban or rural areas must be kept in mind. One may have good customers like hotels, nursing homes, clubs, malls, which are plenty in the State of Kerala and thus can be treated to be the creamy layers amongst the customers and the rest in another class. The class of customers, the petitioner offers to pay services may found the same to be inevitable, for others it may not be so. One sector of MSOs may be wholly unorganised, they may not be able to realise the subscription fee from a good number of their customers, whereas the subscription fee of big MSOs like the petitioner except in some exceptional cases would be almost secure. It is beyond any doubt or dispute that rates of subscription fee not only varies from metropolitan towns to the hilly areas, they do vary from area to area in the same town. We, therefore, must have the requisite facts and figures for invoking the equality clause vis-à-vis the level playing field. ”
