The Delhi High Court today issued notices to the Union Government, Star TV, Bharti Teleservices and the Director General of MRTPS on a petition seeking ban of the popular game show "Kaun Banega Crorepati" for allegedly cheating viewers with false promises.

A division bench of Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma which issued the notices posted the matter for further hearing to May 3.

The petition filed by a Finger Prints Bureau Inspector of the Delhi Police Anup Kumar Bhati alleged that the channel under a so-called tie-up with Bharti Teleservices (Airtel) lured him into spending Rs 10,000 towards making calls and SMS to become eligible for attending the show.

Guneswar Sarma, counsel for the petitioner complained that through the interactive voice response system and other means the two companies lured Bhati into making the calls with the promise that he would be selected for the show if he managed to score 1,200 points.

It was claimed that after Bhati secured 1,175 points the organisers called him up to congratulate that he was on the verge of being selected and asked him to proceed with his SMS and telephonic answers for the various queries.

Thereafter it was alleged there was no further correspondence from the organisers or the telephone company.

Sharma alleged that the tie up between the two companies was mainly intended to hoodwink gullible viewers by luring millions of subscribers to make telephone calls and SMS to generate their own incomes and popularity.

Such practices and the show, the counsel pleaded should be banned as it was a restrict trade practice and misleading innocent public.