New Delhi: In a first, the Supreme Court has ordered to shutdown a mobile phone tower, after hearing a plea of 42-year-old man, who claimed that the electromagnetic radiation from the tower afflicted him with cancer.
Harish Chand Tiwari, working as a domestic help in Gwalior’s Dal Bazar area, had moved the apex court last year, urging the top court to shutdown a BSNL tower illegally installed on a neighbour's rooftop in 2002, The Times of India reported.
He claimed that the tower had exposed him to harmful radiation for the last 14 years,
Tiwari filed a plea with the help of advocate Nivedita Sharma complaining that he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma caused by continuous and prolonged exposure to radiation.
Ascting on Tiwari's plea a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha dirested the BSNL to deactivate the tower within seven days.
The SC last year initiated a scrutiny of "deleterious" effects of radiation emanating from mobile towers and sought a report from the centre on several aspects including steps taken to enforce standards for such emissions.
