A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee said the PIL was wholly misconceived as it failed to show how human voice through loudspeakers raised noise decibels beyond the permissible limits causing noise pollution.
The PIL petition filed by one Dharmendra Prajapati, who claimed to be a doctor by profession, contended that use of loudspeakers in mosques causes disturbance and noise pollution.
The bench, however, sought to know on what grounds the petitioner claimed noise pollution is caused.
“You play music that doesn’t cause disturbance?” the Chief Justice questioned, to which petitioner’s counsel DG Shukla responded that the music is played in house and not in a public place like mosque.
To this, the Chief Justice said,
“We aren’t speaking about music played in homes. You also play loud music for bhajan or aarti in a temple. That doesn’t cause disturbance? How does this (Azaan) cause disturbance? This is for few minutes. Less than 10 minutes (through out the day) it is.”
CJ Agarwal further sought to know how many decibels rise at the time of Azaan?
“What about your DJ? That creates a lot of pollution we aren’t entertaining this kind of a PIL. It (Azaan) is a faith and practice going on for years together. It is not even for 10 minutes (a day),” the CJ remarked.
The advocate, however, emphasised that Azaan takes place five times a day unlike aarti in temples.
“So in your temples, the morning aarti with those drums and music that starts early morning. It doesn’t cause any noise or distrubance to anyone? Can you say that the noise of that ghanta and ghadiyal stays within temple premises and doesn’t percolate out of the premises,” Chief Justice Agarwal underscored.
Source: Barandbench
