After giving temporary permission to Media Content and Communications Services for four consecutive weeks, the government on Wednesday withheld its decision on the company's fifth application for uplinking news for Star News from the country.

The company's temporary permission to up-link expires on Wednesday night.

However, the channel would not go off air, as it will benefit from an order from the Bombay high court, which does not allow Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd to discontinue its point to point up-link facility.

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The government is expected to take a decision of the issue on Thursday.

"The government is still considering our application for temporary up-link. But we will not go off air as we have the protection from the Mumbai High Court," said Kaushal Dalal, director MCCS and business development manager, Star India.

Taking tough posture on the issue, the government attributed, lack of clarity in some of the detailed provided by the company and lack of time to process the application, as the reason for not giving the permission on Wednesday.

The government also on Wednesday said that the answers provided by Star on certain queries are not completely satisfactory.

Even the Department of Company Affairs have told the information and broadcasting ministry that the MCCS and other associated companies require further investigation before it was granted the permission to up-link.

"The company has not yet answered who is the real owner of MCCS. From the look of it, the company looks like a company, which has its hands completely tied down by Star. This is not purpose of the policy we have," said a government official.

The government also wants, MCCS to provide the details such as "where all the associated companies of MCCS were incorporated, shareholding pattern as well as the flow of funds."

It has also sought further clarification on the shareholding patterns of companies like Touch Telecontent and Rent Works.

"We are studying the replies by the company and the further permission to up-link would depend on the nature and the content of the replies," said the official.

According to sources, the government is not fully satisfied with the company's answers on the how the entire staff of MCCS was transferred overnight to Touch Telecontent.

MCCS had applied for a two week's temporary up-linking permission from the government. "We have been asking for longer permissions, but government has been giving us permission for one week. We think that our up-linking should not be disturbed till the time we get the permanent license," said Dalal.