New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today
refused to direct the MCD to de-seal the mobile towers which
were sealed by the civic body for not complying with its
guidelines.
A vacation bench of Justice Manmohan Singh declined to
give any interim relief to GTL Infrastructure, which filed the
petition, saying that there is no urgency in the matter and it
could be decided after vacation by a Division Bench before
whom the case is pending.
The infrastructure company pleaded before the court that
the towers should be de-sealed because MCD had no power to
take such action and only Central government has power to do
so.
The court, however, refused to pass any order saying that
a similar petition is pending before a Division Bench and the
case can be heard on July 8.
Earlier the court had, on June 4, stayed its order for
constituting a committee of technical and medical experts to
examine potential health hazards from over 5,000 mobile phone
towers in the capital and refused to allow the MCD to seal
2,952 illegal towers in the city.
The court had on May 13 restrained the civic body
from sealing illegal mobile phone towers after cellular
operators approached it challenging the decision of the MCD to
seal the towers of the operators who did not deposit the
increased fee of Rs five lakh.
The municipal body had started the sealing exercise
following the expiry of the deadline for operators to apply
for regularisation after paying the hiked amount.
MCD had said that out of 5,364 towers in the city,
only 2,412 had requisite permission and the remaining 2,952
were illegal.
The MCD had on February 9 brought in a new policy on
mobile towers revising the guidelines for cell towers and
hiking the amount payable by the service providers to the MCD
for installing a tower from Rs one lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
PTI
First Published: Monday, June 14, 2010, 20:33