MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Friday quashed and set aside a resolution passed by the gram panchayat of a village that cancelled permission and stopped the work of installation of a mobile tower on the ground that radiation from it would cause health hazards to villagers.“In the modern age, the inescapable reality is that mobile phones are no longer a luxury but an inevitable necessity, be it in the urban areas or in the remotest part of the country. In order to facilitate seamless communication throughout the country and to ensure that citizens of the remote areas are not deprived of revolution in technology which manifests itself in the form of mobile phones, mobile towers cannot be summarily dispensed with misplaced information,’’ said Justices Girish Kulkarni and Advait Sethna in the verdict.Infrastructure provider Indus Towers Ltd and landowner Ashok Chougule challenged the Aug 2024 resolution that cancelled the Dec 2023 NOC by the gram panchayat of village Tanang, Miraj taluka, Sangli district stating that 90 % work is completed and the tower is almost ready for operation. It was twice issued stop-work notices on complaints that radio waves emitted would be a health hazard/risk to villagers.Senior advocate Anil Anturkar with advocate Sugandh Deshmukh, for the petitioners, argued that merely on the basis of haphazard complaints of purported health issues, the NOC was revoked in a high-handed arbitrary manner. The judges agreed that the resolution was passed without notice or hearing to the petitioners contrary to telecom policy and without independent verification of such complaints on the basis of scientific material. “The impugned resolution suffers from the vice of non-application of mind and lacks the rationale to support such action,’’ Justice Sethna wrote for the bench.The judges found “substance” in Anturkar’s submission that the resolution is contrary to a Dec 2015 government resolution (GR) that once the gram panchayat grants NOC, it cannot be revoked/cancelled under any circumstances. Further , that there are no exceptional circumstances like natural disaster or public emergency which would compel the authorities to cancel/revoke the NOC. Anturkar referred to an amendment in the Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules read with Telecommunication Act that does not mandate the requirement of permission for right of way in respect of a telecommunication network. “Thus the impugned resolution…could not have been passed only on the basis of the unsubstantiated complaint which was contrary to the statutory framework,’’ the judges said.They disagreed with the gram panchayat’s advocate Tejesh Dande that the resolution is justified in larger public interest “in the absence of any material whatsoever to buttress such submission.” “Before diverting to such drastic action, the prudent norm of an independent scrutiny of such complaints was legally mandated,” they added.While setting aside the Aug 2024 resolution, the judges also directed the gram panchayat, its employees and agents not to obstruct installation of the mobile tower and to allow the petitioner (Indus) to operate the mobile tower without any obstruction and hindrance by gram panchayat or by the residents of the village.
