High Court stays mobile tower sealing

Tribune News Service

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Ludhiana, March 17

The Punjab and Haryana High Court issued a stay order on the Municipal Corporation over sealing mobile phone towers.

A mobile tower operating company — Indus Towers Limited — challenged MC’s drive by filling a writ petition. It also challenged the tower policy issued by Punjab. The court granted interim relief to the petitioner.

Nitin Thalwal, head legal, Punjab and Haryana, Indus Towers, said: “Punjab issued a tower policy to regulate the installation of mobile towers in the state. The policy levied exorbitant fee for the installation, sharing and also annual fee along with other conditions for installing mobile towers. The state government cannot regulate, telecommunication being a Central subject. Moreover, the policy was also in total disregard to the guidelines issued by the Department of Telecommunication, Ministry of Communication and IT, Government of India.”

“The Ludhiana Municipal Corporation issued notices to various telecom companies, including Indus Towers, asking them to pay the fee as per this policy and that towers shall be sealed in case of non-payment of fee. The MC then sealed 23 towers of Indus Towers along with various towers of other tower companies. Aggrieved by this action, we challenged the Punjab Tower Policy and got relief against the sealing of towers,” said Nitin.