Maintaining that the use of loudspeakers is not an essential part of any religion, the Bombay High Court on Thursday ruled that police under the Mumbai and Maharashtra Police Act have the powers, and it is necessary for them to use it for proper implementation of the Environment (Protection) Act and the Noise Pollution Rules at places of worship.
The bench of Justices AS Gadkari and SC Chandak directed the Maharashtra government to consider directing all the concerned to have an inbuilt mechanism to control decibel levels in their public address systems or other sound emitting gadgets used by any religious bodies, irrespective of religion.
The bench observed that generally people do not complain about things until they become intolerable and a nuisance. “We are of the view that, without requiring identification of the complainant, the police must act on such complaints, more so to avoid such complainants being targets or ill will and developing hatred,” said the bench.
The bench said that the state should also direct police to use the decibel level measuring mobile applications to check the noise levels.
The high court bench stressed that policemen are duty bound to deal with any complaints, and they may also withdraw permissions granted to institutions for the use of loudspeakers, if repeated violations of the provisions of said Noise Pollution Rules are brought to their notice.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by Jaago Nehru Nagar Residents Welfare Association represented by advocate Kaushik Mhatre, who submitted that there are many masjids and madrasas situated in Chunabhatti and Nehru Nagar, Kurla (East). The said masjids have placed loudspeakers, microphones and/or amplifiers and the sound created therefrom is unbearable, the plea said.
Mhatre submitted that use of loudspeakers in the early hours i.e. at about 5:00 am are “prohibited hours” under the law and during the festival days, they are operated till 1:30 a.m., which is beyond the permissible limit for its use, even if the permission is alleged to have been granted by the concerned authorities.
Mhatre submitted that the police attached to Chunabhatti and Nehru Nagar Police Station did not take the necessary steps to prevent the noise pollution for the reasons best known to them.
The bench, after hearing arguments from all sides, observed that Mumbai is a cosmopolitan city, and there are people of different religions in every part of the city.
“The very fact that the petitioners have filed an application to direct the state authorities to implement the orders of the Supreme Court as well as several orders of this court would evince that there has been a deliberate violation of the orders, the high court pointed out.