MUMBAI: The Bombay high court last week held that under the new statutory regime no planning permissions are required to construct mobile towers on private lands and dismissed a public interest litigation filed by a citizen association, seeking removal of several mobile towers claiming that the same were put up without obtaining planning permissions.
The division bench of chief justice Alok Aradhe and justice Sandeep Marne noted that the Telecommunications Act, 2023 and Right of Way Rules, 2024 govern installation, operation and maintenance of telecommunication services and this statutory framework “apparently do not require permissions from local authorities in the manner envisaged under the provisions of MRTP (Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning) Act,” the bench said while dismissing PIL filed by Jagruk Nagrik Sanghatana, a citizen body and seven individuals.
The petitioners believed that the people residing in the vicinity of mobile towers suffered from various ailments like high blood pressure and some of their families died due to cancer caused by the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobile tower antennas and therefore approached the high court in 2023.
Apart from raising concerns about the purported health hazard caused by the towers, the petitioners had also claimed that many of the towers had been installed without securing planning permissions and therefore had sought orders to the Pune Municipal Corporation, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and the Pimpri Chinchwad New Township Development Authority to remove illegal mobile towers and antennas installed in their limits.
Advocate Sugandh Deshmukh, representing the Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association, however, pointed out that there was no scientific evidence suggesting telecommunication towers have any adverse impact on human health.
Advocate Deshmukh also pointed out that under the Telecommunications Act, 2023 and Right of Way Rules, 2024, mobile tower and mobile services are treated as essential services which aid in achieving speedy growth of economy and under the statutory regime planning permissions are not required to install mobile towers and for establishment operations and maintenance of mobile towers on any private property.
The bench accepted the argument and noted that the 2013 Act and the Rules framed thereunder only require that information in prescribed format is submitted to the concerned planning authority together with a certificate of the structural safety of the building over which the mobile tower is proposed to be established.
The bench also noted that the Maharashtra government has made the provisions of Telecommunications Act, 2023 applicable to the state from June 26, 2024 and the Right of Way Rules, 2024 with effect from 1 January 2025 and therefore rejected the plea for demolition of the towers installed without development permissions.