New Delhi, Dec 26: The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre to spell out the criteria for excluding broadcast of some cricket Test matches, involving India, on Doordarshan.

"We want to know do you have any norms to decide or it is to be decided on a case-by-case basis? What are the guidelines on the basis of which it is to be decided whether it is of high public interest or not?" a bench of justices T S Thakur and Veena Birbal said.

Observing that "Exercise of discretion (by the government) is open to judicial scrutiny so that it should not be arbitrary," the bench questioned the government on how it decided whether a Test match was of public interest or not.

"How do you decide whether a Test match is of public interest or not? If the government fails to explain it, then the impression would go that classification has been done on extraneous reasons," the bench said, while directing the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to file its reply by January 8.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by a cricket buff, Ravi Dev Gupta, challenging the government's decision refusing to place all the Test matches at par with one-day internationals and Twenty20 matches as sporting events of public interest and ensure telecast of all Test matches on DD.

The Centre, through its notification issued October 3, had declared that like ODIs and Twenty20 matches, all Test matches were not of high public interest and the public broadcaster was not bound to telecast all of them.

The bench, after hearing the petitioner's contentions, sought to know the basis on which the government would decide the importance of a particular Test match. (Agencies)