HC Slams Power Utility, ISPs Over Dangling Wires
Telangana High Court on Wednesday came down heavily on TGSPDCL, private internet providers, and cable operators for allowing wires to dangle from electric poles, posing a risk of electrocution as seen in the Ramanthapur incident on Sunday.
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday came down heavily on TGSPDCL, private internet providers, and cable operators for allowing wires to dangle from electric poles, posing a risk of electrocution as seen in the Ramanthapur incident on Sunday.
Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka questioned the power utilities, internet and cable operators over their accountability. “Who will take responsibility for the lives of the people? Neither the Central nor the State government nor GHMC owns responsibility. Institutions like GHMC and power utilities focus only on revenue collection by permitting service providers to use poles, but ignore public safety,” the judge observed, referring to the recent tragedy in which six people were electrocuted.
The court was hearing a lunch motion petition filed by Bharti Airtel Ltd, challenging the government order to disconnect cable lines from electricity poles following the incident.
Senior counsel S. Ravi, representing Airtel, argued that the company had obtained due permission from TGSPDCL to lay optical fibre cables (OFC) under the Telecommunications Act, 2023 and Right of Way Rules, 2024. He said Airtel had paid about Rs 21 crore as pole rental and compensation charges since 2021.
Despite compliance with the statutory framework, TGSPDCL officials indiscriminately cut and removed Airtel’s cables without notice, in violation of Rule 18 of the Right of Way Rules. The counsel said such action disrupted services to lakhs of subscribers, including hospitals, judicial authorities, and businesses, and stressed that telecom communication, being an essential service, cannot be arbitrarily interrupted.
TGSPDCL counsel N. Sridhar Reddy countered that a similar petition had been withdrawn earlier and argued that the current petition was repetitive. He added that many poles were overloaded with cables beyond the permissible limit.
After hearing both sides, Justice Bheemapaka questioned why action was not taken earlier and only after the tragedy. The judge refused to order restoration of the removed cables, issued notices to the government, and said the matter would be resolved on Friday (Aug. 22) once explanations were received. Meanwhile, the court orally directed TGSPDCL to stop further cutting of Airtel’s optical fibre cables.