The Secretary, Ministry Of ... vs Cricket Association Of Bengal & ... on 9 February, 1995 of that freedom by private interests. x x x x x x x licensees given the privilege of using scarce radio frequencies as proxies for the entire community, obligated to give suitable time and attention to matters of great public concern. To condition the granting or renewal of licenses on a willingness to present representative community views on controversial issues is consistent with the ends and purposes of those constitutional provisions forbidding the abridgment of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Congress need not stand idly by and permit those with licenses to ignore the problems which beset the people or to exclude from the airways anything but their own views of fundamental questions.... Licenses to broadcast do not confer ownership of designated frequencies, but only the temporary privilege of using them." 28.Referring to the contention that although at one time the lack of available frequencies for all who wished to use them justified the Government's choice, of those who would best serve the public interest by acting as proxy for those who would present differing views, or by giving the latter access directly to broadcast facilities, the said condition no longer prevailed to invite continuing control, the Court held: "Scarcity is not entirely a thing of the past. Advances in technology, such as microwave transmission, have led to more efficient utilisation of the frequency spectrum, but uses for that spectrum have also grown apace. Portions of the spectrum must be reserved for vital uses unconnected with human communication, such as radio-navigational aids used by aircraft-and vessels. Conflicts have even emerged between such vital functions as defense preparedness and experimentation in methods of averting n-ddair collisions through radio warning devices. "Land mobile services" such as police, ambulance, fire department, public utility, and other communications system have been occupying an increasingly crowded portion of the frequency spectrum and there are, apart from licensed amateur radio operators' equipment, 5,000,000 transmitters operated on the "citizens' band" which is also increasingly congested. Among the various uses for radio frequency space, including marine, aviation, amateur, military, and common carrier users, there are easily enough claimants to permit use of the whole with an even smaller allocation to broadcast radio and television uses than now exists. Comparative hearings between competing applicants for broadcast spectrum space are by no means a thing of the past. The radio spectrum has become so. congested that at times it has been necessary to suspend new applications. The very high frequency television spectrums, in the country's major markets, ahmost entirely occupied, although space reserved for ultra high frequency television transmission, which is a relatively recent development as a commercially viable alternative, has not yet been completely filled. Indian Kanoon - http://indiankanoon.org/doc/539407/ 17