India, Sept. 2 -- The Bombay high court last week held that under the new statutory regime no planning permissions are required to construct mobile towers on private lands and dismissed a public interest litigation filed by a citizen association, seeking removal of several mobile towers claiming that the same were put up without obtaining planning permissions.

The division bench of chief justice Alok Aradhe and justice Sandeep Marne noted that the Telecommunications Act, 2023 and Right of Way Rules, 2024 govern installation, operation and maintenance of telecommunication services and this statutory framework "apparently do not require permissions from local authorities in the manner envisaged under the provisions of MRTP (Maharashtra Reg...