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Informist, Monday, Apr. 21, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Haryana government's response on a petition by Reliance Projects and Property Management Services Ltd. against the state's laws to regulate the erection and maintenance of mobile communication towers, including right-of-way permissions and charges. 

 

The petitioner said that only the Parliament was competent to enact a law to regulate matters related to the erection and maintenance of telecommunication networks, such as mobile towers and optical fibre cables, including right-of-way permissions and charges. Parliament has already enacted the requisite legislation, and the Centre has framed rules, the petitioner said.

 

The Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016, prescribed a fee of INR 10,000 for mobile towers and INR 1,000 per kilometre for underground telegraph infrastructure, said the petitioner. Other than this fee, no other fees could be charged under the 2016 rules. In 2022, the 2016 rules were amended to specify the maximum charges that could be levied by an "appropriate authority" towards any fees, compensation or restoration charges. 

 

While some states amended their rules to bring them in line with the Right of Way Rules, some states, such as Haryana and Punjab, continued to charge exorbitant rates for Right of Way Rules permissions, including for the erection of telecommunication infrastructure on private property, the petitioner said.  

 

After the Telecommunications Act, 2023 and the Telecommunications (Right of Way) Rules, 2024, came into force, the Centre issued a direction in November to all states to issue clarifications and implement the 2024 Rules. Therefore, state legislation and rules which regulate the erection and maintenance of mobile communication towers, including the right-of-way permissions and charges, are no longer implementable, the petitioner said.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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