NEW DELHI, May 31: Just as the centre has given nod to start 5G network trials, the noted Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla on Monday moved the Delhi high court against implementation of 5G wireless network technology in India raising issues related to the radiation impact on citizens, animals, flora and fauna.
The petition has claimed that 5G will lead to RF exposure to all the living beings on earth which she said would be 100 times more than the current level and lead to serious, irreversible effects on humans.
Justice C Hari Shankar, before whom the matter came up for hearing, transferred the suit to another bench for hearing on Wednesday.
The actor said while she was not against the implementation of technological advancements, “we have sufficient reason to believe that the radiation is extremely harmful and injurious to the health and safety of the people.”
Her petition, filed through advocate Deepak Khosla, has cited clinical and experimental evidence of damage to DNA, cells and organ systems in plants and animals to state the major diseases of modern civilization – cancer, heart disease and diabetes – are, in large part, caused by electromagnetic pollution which is generated by wireless mobile phone technology.
In a statement, Juhi Chawla’s spokesperson said, “The present suit is being instituted, in order to seek a direction from this Hon’ble court to the arrayed defendants, to certify to us and, therefore, to the public at large, that 5G technology is safe to human kind, man, woman, adult, child, infant, animals and every type of living organism, to flora, to fauna.”
The statement also asked the direction to produce studies done in this regard.
Earlier this month, the Department of Telecom (DoT) approved applications of telecom companies Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and MTNL to conduct 5G trials in India. The companies have been asked to conduct the trials without Chinese technology or entities, as per government order.
Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea have been given trial spectrum for six month to test 5G technology in the country. State-owned telecom firm MTNL will also join the trial soon.
Telecom operators have been allocated spectrum in 700 Mhz band, 3.3-3.6 gigahertz (Ghz) band and 24.25-28.5 Ghz band across various locations.
The trials will be conducted at various locations including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Gujarat and Hyderabad.
During the trials, application of 5G in Indian settings will get tested. This includes tele-medicine, tele-education and drone-based agriculture monitoring. Telecom operators will be able to test various 5G devices on their network.
According to DoT, 5G technology is expected to deliver 10 times better download speed than that of 4G and up to three times greater spectrum efficiency.
(Manas Dasgupta)