India, May 30 -- The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) rule capping advertisements on television to 12 minutes per hour. A Division Bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Amit Mahajan rejected the petitions filed by broadcasters challenging the time cap on TV ads. The Court said that the TRAI acted within its statutory powers in framing the regulations, which were aimed at protecting viewers from excessive commercial interruptions.

Several TV channels challenged Rule 7(11) of the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994, and TRAI's 2012 and 2013 regulations that imposed a ceiling of 10 minutes of commercial advertisements and two minutes of self-promotional content every hour. Broadcasters ar...