The Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a writ appeal filed by a group of agriculturists opposing the erection of high-tension power lines across agricultural fields and near residential areas on the grounds that the low frequency magnetic field can cause ailments such as cancer.
Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy refused to entertain the appeal after recording the submission of the Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation (Tantransco) that the research studies relied upon by the litigants were not conducted in India.
Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran told the court that the petitioners had relied upon certain papers published in reputed international science journals to claim possibility of brain tumours, but those studies had been carried out in Norway, Sweden and Netherlands. He pointed out that there was no evidence of any study carried out in India having shown that those who reside near high-tension lines suffer the risk of leukemia or brain tumours. There were hundreds and thousands of overhead high-tension lines passing through farm lands here, he said.
