Mobile Tower – Cancellation of NOC by Gram Panchayat
The petitioner no.1 is the infrastructure provider for mobile network registered with the Department of Telecommunications and licence under Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.
By the Resolution dated 20.11.2023, the Gram Panchayat, Tanag, granted NOC for installation of mobile tower in the land of the respondent no.2.
Accordingly, the petitioner no.1 completed 90% of the civil work and mobile tower is almost ready for operation. Thereafter, there were objections and notices to the mobile tower.
However, by the resolution dated 8.8.2024, the respondent no.1 Gram Panchayat of Tanag in District Sangli, cancelled the NOC granted to the petitioner no.1 for installing mobile tower in the land of the respondent no.2.
HELD the impugned cancellation of NOC on the basis of unsubstantiated complaints on purported health issues and without verification is illegal. It is contrary to Clause 4 of the Government Resolution dated 11.12.2015 that the NOC cannot be revoked in any circumstances. There are no reasons
Section 14(4) of the Telecommunication Act provides that no public entity shall have the authority to take any coercive action of sealing, preventing access or forcible shutdown of telecommunication network established by an authorised entity.
Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016, read with Telecommunication Act, 2003, aims at promoting and facilitating the development of mobile infrastructure.
Before parting we may observe that in the modern age the inescapable reality is that mobile phones are no longer a luxury but an inevitable necessity, it be 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 manifest itself in the form of mobile phones, mobile towers cannot be summarily dispensed with on misplaced information. The judgments of various Courts cited supra makes the position clear in this regard, leaving no room for ambiguity or uncertainty, for the present.
Judgment dated 6.6.2025 of the High Court of Bombay in Writ Petition No.15903 of 2024 of Indus Tower Limited and another Vs. Gram Panchayat, Tanag and others
