The Delhi High Court today sought the Centre's response on a plea by Digital Radio Broadcasting Ltd, which runs Red FM, against the government's decision denying it permission to participate in the third phase of FM auction. A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva also permitted Red FM, a company associated with Kalanithi Maran-promoted SUN TV, to participate in the mock auction scheduled for today.'<br/><br/>The court issued notices to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and sought its reply by Friday when the bench will hear the matter. Meanwhile, the central government standing counsel Sanjiv Narula told the court that the ministry was not in favour of deferring the auction, which is currently scheduled for next Monday, as the entire process takes two-three months and everything has been lined up. <br/><br/>The counsel also said that the government had extended the stage-II licences till September this year only after which the channels would have to migrate to stage III. Narula also said that the government is looking into who is controlling the company and where it gets its funds from for which it was necessary to look into the shareholding. <br/><br/>Digital Radio's application to participate in the auction was rejected as it was not given security clearance by the Union Home Ministry on the ground that Kalanithi Maran, a shareholder in the radio channel, was facing prosecution in a money laundering case, as per their plea.