HC proposes committee on 'health hazards' of mobile towers

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Mahesh Bhagwati asked the state government, counsel for petitioner and advocates representing various telecom companies to assist the court by suggesting names of eminent scientists, experts and other persons who could man the committee.

The bench had yesterday directed random spot checking of emission of radiation from any two mobile towers in the state and sought a report in this regard today.

Today, it was brought to the notice of court that three spots were identified namely area near residence of petitioner Justice (rtd) I S Israni, Sanghi Mansions, and Tagore Hospital, Mansarovar.

"It was fond that the emissions were under the permissible limit and in one case it was borderline.

"It was also suggested that the lawyers are not technically competent to certify the radiation levels as such a committee of experts be framed," said Prateek Kasliwal.

The Bench then directed the parties to suggest names of five experts by Friday who will monitor mobile tower radiations in the month of June and prepare a study based on the survey conducted by them and directed the matter to be listed again in the month of July.

The Bench had yesterday took a serious view that the Union government had issued a circular to use the spectrometer provided by respective mobile companies for measuring radiation from their Mobile towers.

"It is surprising that the Central government's Telecom department is not having any spectrometer of its own," it observed.

"There cannot be any compromise with the public health," the Bench had said.