State government can regulate mobile towers, levy fee: High court | India News – Times of India

CHANDIGARH: Haryana govt can enact rules to regulate installation and operation of mobile towers and impose fees as well, ordered a full bench of Punjab and Haryana high court.
Telegraph Act does not override state govt’s legislative competence to enact or promulgate legislation and rules, court added.
Justices Lisa Gill, Sudhir Singh, and Suvir Sehgal passed the order on Friday while examining the legislative competence of a notification issued by Haryana govt on April 12, 2012. It had inserted several sections in Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, and Haryana Panchayati Raj (Regulation of Communication Towers) Rules, 2012. It also included impugned notices issued by state authorities calling upon cellular companies to deposit fees for erecting communication towers. The court upheld state govt’s legislative competence to frame such rules. However, the court said the validity of provisions regarding the quantum of levy were within the division bench’s domain.
Cellular companies had claimed that to provide services to public, it was required to erect mobile towers on rooftops of buildings and/or ground-based mobile towers. They said the location of mobile towers are based in a scientific survey, which takes into account requirements such as signal strength and mobile phone users’ needs for connectivity.