HC seeks report from SDMC on 'illegal' mobile tower

Ten-year-old Arjun Vats is a cancer survivor. At the age of two, he was operated at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital for a tumour on the right side of his heart. Since then Arjun's mother, and father, Naveen Mishra, are doing all they can to keep their son away from symptoms that may lead to a recurrence, or introduce other potentially harmful diseases.

With this in mind, Mishra, a resident of south-west Delhi, has knocked at the door of the Delhi High Court (HC) to stop the construction of a mobile tower — by one Ravinder Sharma — on the roof of a neighbourhood house. According to Mishra's petition, the mobile tower, if constructed, would adversely affect his son's health.

"My son is a survivor and because of cancer, there are several other ailments for which he is undergoing treatment. The installation would further hamper the health of my son," Mishra said.

The petitioner also alleged that no sanctions or permissions have been taken for the construction and hence it was illegal. Mishra has been fighting a long legal battle to get the construction of the mobile tower stopped.

"Six months back I got to know that a mobile tower is being illegally constructed. Since then I have made all efforts, both verbally and through written complaints, to stop the construction.

It would stop for a brief time after the complaints, but would resume again after some days," Mishra said.

Mishra added that he had written complaints to the Station House Officer (SHO), Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) against the constructions but received no response. After this, he had decided to approach the court.

Following Mishra's petition, the Delhi High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the SDMC and has asked them to file a status report in this regard.