India, June 7 -- The Bombay high court on Friday struck down the decision of a village panchayat in Sangli to cancel a no-objection certificate (NOC) granted for the construction of a mobile phone tower on the grounds that it was a potential health hazard.

A division bench of justices GS Kulkarni and Advait Sethna said that there was no scientific material to support the claim that the radiation from mobile towers is a health hazard. Therefore, it added, the decision of the Tanang village panchayat to cancel the NOC granted to Indus Tower Limited to construct the tower and order it to stop construction work at the site was taken "purely on surmises and conjectures".

According to the petition filed by Indus Tower, a licensed mobile netwo...