The Delhi high court on Friday stayed an earlier order of a single judge bench for constituting a panel of experts to ascertain health hazards from over 5,000 mobile phone towers in the city. A division bench comprising of Chief Justice of the Delhi high court Dipak Misra and Justice Madan B. Lokur stayed the May 31 order of Justice Kailash
Gambhir, who had directed the telecommunication secretary and the MCD commissioner to constitute a broad-based committee.
The court also directed the cellular operators to pay Rs 2 lakhs as licence fee and said the operators shall now pay Rs 1 lakh as fee and a fixed deposit of Rs 1 lakh which will be in the custody of the MCD.
The bench passed the order on an appeal filed by the MCD challenging the single judge bench order on allowing cellular companies to operate towers by depositing Rs 1 lakh instead of Rs 5 lakhs. The MCD contended that court cannot interfere in its decision-making process as being an executive body it has all the right to fix the charge for mobile operators.