In a clear admission of the harmful side effects of telecom towers, the Supreme Court has ordered to shut a BSNL tower because an individual had complained that 24×7 radiation from the tower had resulted in him being afflicted with cancer.

Harish Chand Tiwari, a 43-year-old domestic help from Gwalior’s Dal Bazar area, had complained in March 2016 that the BSNL tower, on a neighbouring rooftop, within 50m from where he worked, had been illegally erected and exposed him to harmful radiation day and night, because of which he had been afflicted with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

The Supreme Court has ordered the tower to be shut within seven days.

The harmful side effects of such towers and their radiation have not been scientifically confirmed, but activists have been warning the public over this for a long time. The Cellular Operators Association of India and the government have denied any such effects and this particular judgement could act as a template for use by activists in deciding what level of radiation from these towers can be called legitimate.

To that extent, this is a path-breaking judgement.

—By India Legal Bureau