By the Court.—The petitioners are distributors of Set Top Boxes, Dish Antenas, Recharge Vouchers of Direct to Home Service (DTH) of M/s Sun Direct TV Pvt. Ltd. (Writ Petition No. 702 of 2011); M/s Bharti Telemedia Ltd. (Writ Petition No. 755 of 2011) and M/s Tata Sky Ltd. (Writ Petition No. 676 of 2011), under the distributorship agreements.

2. By these writ petitions the petitioners have sought for declaration of Section 2 (f-1); (f-2); 3 (d) and 13 (2) of the Uttar Pradesh Cinemas (Regulation of Exhibition by means of Video) (Fourth Amendment) Rules, 2011 as ultra vires to the provisions of Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, and Art.14, 19 (1) (g), 246 and 265 of the Constitution of India. They have also prayed for quashing the notices dated 19.4.2011 and 26.4.2011 (in Writ Petition No. 702 of 2011); notice dated 19.4.2011 (in Writ Petition No. 755 of 2011) and notice dated 12.4.2011 (in Writ Petition No. 676 of 2011) issued by the District Entertainment Tax Officer (Licensing Authority), Distt. Ghazipur directing them to obtain licenses as 'Television Signal Receiver Agency'.

3. We have heard Shri D.K. Singh assisted by Shri R.M. Saggi for the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 702 of 2011, and Shri Bharat Ji Agrawal, Sr. Advocate assisted by Shri Ashish Misra in Writ Petition No. 755 of 2011 and 676 of 2011. Shri Satish Chaturvedi, Additional Advocate General assisted by Shri A.C. Tripathi, Standing Counsel appears for the State respondents.

4. The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, is the law relating to telegraph in India. It is an Act of ancient vintage enacted in the end of nineteenth century to regulate telegraph, when the signals were transmitted by mores code (the codes consisting of dots and dashes, or long or short sounds, used for transmitting messages by audible or visual signals on wires. With the rapid advance of science and technology in the field of telecommunications, the Act has been amended from time to time. The word 'telegraph' was amended in the year 1961, by Telegraph Laws (Amendment) Act, 1961, and thereafter in the year 2004 by Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, No. 8 of 2004, with retrospective effect from 1.4.2002. The amended definition of 'telegraph', in the Indian Telegraph Act, 1985 reads as follows :

"(1AA) 'telegraph' means any appliance, instrument, material or apparatus used or capable of use for transmission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, visual or other electromagnetic emissions, radio waves or Hertzian waves, galvanic, electric or magnetic means.

Explanation.—'Radio waves' or 'Hertzian waves' means electro-magnetic waves of frequencies lower than 3000 giga-cycles per second propagated in space without artificial guide."

5. The Central Government in exercise of powers conferred in Sections 4 and 7 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and Section 10 of the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933, made Radio Television and Video Cassettes Recorder Sets (Exemption from Licensing Requirements) Rules, 1985. These Rules were amended in the year 1986 by Notification dated 1st October, 1986; in 1989 by the Notification dated 17th July, 1989, and thereafter in 1997 by notification dated 16th July, 1997. By the last amendment vide notification dated 16th July, 1997, exemption was given from license to establish, maintain, work, possess or deal in radio television and video cassette recorder sets as well as special antenna, including dish antenna, satellite decoder and associated front-end converter, used or capable of being used for reception of transient images of fixed and moving objects direct from satellites operating in Broadcasting Satellite Service or Fixed Satellite Service, in frequency bands below 4800 MHz. This exemption was, however, not available for the Northeastern States, State of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshdweep and Minicoy Islands. The reasons for bringing in these amendments was the advanc