Introduction:
Communication between human beings and any other living animals is one of the important characteristics. Communication does not mean only through voice, it can do through body language is action with the people around us. Communication has been the most crucial part of social life. Looking back to the history, pigeon post was used by Romans more than two years ago and smoke signals were used in between the different tribes or else people must travel by themselves to convey the message from one place to another.
Postal services were introduced long ago around the world. In India, the initiative had taken in 1688 under the East India Company with the name tag of company Mail. That Indian post was ruling the communication around India until the entry of Telecommunication which made communication of voice easier, comfortable, and mainly in a faster manner. Telecommunication is one of the important progress in the field of communication in and around independence.
Evolution
The evolution of the communication sector can be categorized into three stages, the first stage lasted till 1990, was a period of double communication sector owned and ruled by the government. Telephone services in India began on a small scale with the Commission of a 50-line manual telephone exchange in 1882 in Kolkata between Calcutta and diamond harbor. This was less than five years after the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell. In the pre-independence era, all major cities and towns in the country were connected with fixed-line telephones, Post-independence growth remained low as the telephone was seen more as a status symbol rather than being an instrument of utility. India had approximately 80,000 telephone collections at the time of independence and by 1984, But off collection is rising to 3.05 million.
It was during the state on era in the year 1985, at the Department of telecom or DOT separated from the Indian post and telecommunications Department. The DOT was responsible for telecom services in the entire country until 1986, in this very year Mahanagar Telephone Nigam limited or MTNL and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) were carved out of duty to run the telecom services of Metro cities which included Delhi and Mumbai international long-distance operations respectively, the stage was set for India to enter the second phase in the evolution of the telecommunication sector, in 1994 the government introduced the national telecommunications policy or NTP this policy laid down the rule of the private operators, the country was divided into different circles which includes the four metros when mobile phones were introduced, today there are 23 circles across the country, separate licenses were given out for each of the circles in 1994, the circles were classified as metro’s A B or C depending upon the revenue potential for the circle.
Cellular services were first launched in 1995 in Kolkata then Calcutta, another milestone during this era was the formation of TRAI shot for the telecom regulatory authority of India, TRAI regulates the environment to ensure a fair and level playing field for both operators and subscribers,
To regulate and streamline the sector in 2000 a third body was constituted, the telecom dispute settlement an Appellate tribunal (TDSAT), the TDSAT settle dispute between operators, operators and the government as well as subscribers and operators.
The government also corporatized the operations wing of DOT on 1st October 2000 and named it as Department of telecommunications services or DTS which was later named Bharath Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). telephone subscriptions kept growing at a steady pace during this. Operators brought in a lot of innovations like outsourcing of networks focused on prepaid etc to make mobile services affordable to the masses, because of all these factors the service fees finally reduced and the call costs were cut greatly thus enabling every common middle-class family in India to afford a cell phone A phone.
After March 2000 the government became more liberal and issuing more licenses to private operators in every circle and reducing license fees, this led to a phase of profitable growth for operators, as a result, the number of telephone subscriptions grew phenomenally from 2001 onwards this is short in the third stage in the evolution of the telecommunication sector. the 3rd stage of the evolution of the telecommunication sector can itself be divided into 2 parts, the first part which begins from 2000 to 2010 is touted as the Golden age of telecom, while the period from 2010 onwards is the age of redefinition. In the Golden era, the number of mobile phone connections rapidly crossed the number of fixed-line connections presently mobile phone connections dwarf the fixed-line segment by a ratio of around 20:1.
Constitutional Aspect
Due to the rapid growth in telecommunication, in the process of means of communication, a huge amount of personal data is being leaked and the same has been used for immoral things, which leads to a direct violation of fundamental rights which comes under part three of the Indian constitution.
Constitution is the fundamental law of the land, any act or law pass it again will be null or void, in order to enforce any new act, it must not violate the rights conferred under part 3 of the constitution. The Telegraph laws or any other laws relating to telecommunications must be in accordance with the fundamental right under which freedom of speech and expression is one of the important aspects in respect to telecommunication and electronic media. The sole ownership of the state regarding telecommunication and media of electronic communication is itself a violation of the fundamental right of free speech and expression. It has mentioned in many laws relating to the telegraph that nothing in this act shall affect any other laws which have power, jurisdiction, and function in the present period of such authority.
The right to speak freely of discourse and articulation is a lot of key rights ensured by the Indian Constitution. Essentially it is intended to give security against state activity other than in the genuine exercise of its capacity to control private rights in people in general interest. They are the fundamental right identifying with the broad communications of each sort including electronic media. Article 19(1) (a) of the Indian Constitution guarantees the Freedom of Discourse and articulation as ‘All residents will have the privilege of the right to speak freely of discourse and expression. The privilege is at standard with Article 19 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says: ‘Everybody has the privilege to opportunity of data and articulation: this privilege incorporates opportunity to hold conclusions without impedance and to look for, get also, grant data and thoughts through any media and paying little mind to frontiers. Again the opportunity for discourse and articulation by Article 19(2) of the International Agreement on Civil and Political Rights” which says: “Everybody will reserve the option to the opportunity of articulation; this privilege will incorporate the opportunity to look for, get and grant data and thoughts, all things considered, paying little heed to wildernesses, either orally, recorded as a hard copy or in print, or as workmanship, or through some other of his choice.” With regards to these lawful arrangements, it very well may be seen that the term discourse and articulation has unique measurements[1].
With regards to electronic media or telecasters, it might be the privilege of the telecaster or the crowd (or anyone at the less than desirable end) or an outsider who is neither a telecaster nor an individual from the crowd. The Fundamental Right is accessible to all these three gatherings and the limitations are given under Clause (2) of Article 19 itself. The crucial rights are distinctive in relation to the lawful rights, legal rights standard rights, and so on.
Article 19(2) of the constitution has prescribed eight specific grounds for regulating the freedom of speech and expression. As per the Article, the state can impose ‘reasonable restrictions (I) in the interest of ‘sovereignty and integrity of India’, (ii) in the interest of unity of the state’ (iii) in the interest of friendly relations with foreign States, (iv) in the interest of public order (v) in the interest of decency or morality (vi) in relation to contempt of court (vii) in relation to defamation and (viii) in relation to incitement to an offense.
The operation of the ‘reasonable restriction’ may be through any existing law or the laws to be made by the State. That means it covers (i.) Any law in the country including (a) the past law adopted for the present purpose, (b) the present law, and (c) the laws which may be made in the future (ii) It applies to the laws made by the state and (iii) The validity of such restrictions is to be accepted in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions only based on the eight specific categories[2]. The Constitutional protection is available to natural persons who are citizens. A corporation is not a natural person hence cannot claim protection under Article 19 The fact that the Shareholders of a corporate body are citizens is not a factor to be considered in the case. But other fundamental rights like Article 14 apply to corporate bodies also. The principle is applicable against an unincorporated society also
Indian Penal Code also punishes whoever injures the peculiar emotional state about the religion under section 235A through electronic media also. The section mentions that any person with thoughtful and mischievous intent of offending the religious feelings of any class of India by words, signs, visible representation, or else insults or attempts to insult the religion or religious principles of that group will be punished with imprisonment of 3 years or with fine or with both
Conclusion
In the rapid fast-growing modern world, telecommunication is playing a vital role in connecting people around the world. On the one hand, it is easing business transaction and other communications but on the other hand, it is used for immoral and illegal things, we get to hear a lot of news about cyberbullying, black males, threat calls which are leading to crimes and suicides, so in order to regulate all these government is taking a major by enacting many statutes such as telegraph act, TRAI act, Wireless Telegraph Act, Prasar Bharati, Cable Regulation Act and IT act.
References:
[1] THE CONSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS OF THE LEGAL CONTROL OVER THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA, shodaganga.com(oct.22,2020,9:40 PM)https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/
[2] Ibid
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