The notice has been issued on Wednesday and they have to reply by Monday," a senior Ministry official said, adding that the Ministry had taken cognizance of the ads on Nimbus Communications' Neo Sports channel much earlier.

The Ministry took cognizance of the reports saying the ad campaign, with its punchline ‘Its tough being a West Indian in India’, had racial overtones as it showed West Indians in poor light because of their skin colour.

The official said the private broadcaster have to explain it, failing which the punishment can be anything between an apology to withdrawal of uplinking-downlinking licence.

Earlier, Nimbus came under fire from the Ministry for not sharing the live feed of cricket ODIs with Doordarshan and All India Radio. A settlement has been reached in the court yesterday, as Nimbus was directed to share live telecast-without seven minutes delay-with Prasar Bharati-run DD and AIR.

The Ministry had issued a show-cause notice to Nimbus, threatening to withdraw licence or fine upto Rs one crore, if it failed to remove seven-minutes delay from the live feed it gives to DD and AIR.