Permission must for erecting mobile towers: Madras High Court

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has held that permission from the authorities concerned for erecting mobile phone towers is compulsory.

A Division Bench of Justices M Venugopal and S Vaidyanathan gave the ruling, while disposing of writ petitions from Indus Towers Limited at Ekkatuthangal to quash an order of the executive officer of Nandhivaram-Guduvancherry Town Panchayat in Kancheepuram district restraining it from erecting a mobile tower in the area. Another petition challenged an order of the executive officer of Annur Town Panchayat in Coimbatore district, ordering removal of its tower at Annur.

“As cell phone towers are for the purpose of making citizens use the cell phones, it is mandatory on the part of the petitioners to seek prior permission from the authorities concerned,” the Bench said. “Without their permission, the petitioners cannot be permitted to operate the cell phone towers from the Base Trans Receiver Station Towers.”

The Bench directed Indus Towers to approach the local bodies that restricted them from erecting the tower/remove the tower by way of applications. Passing similar orders on another petition from the same company dealing with emission of radiation by mobile phone towers, the Bench observed that whether the radiation in the cell phones causes health hazard or not, certainly mobile phone distances the family members.