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Religious places within silence zone ambit: Govt ………Shibu Thomas |
Mumbai: Making a complete about-turn, the Maharashtra government on Thursday informed the Bombay high court that it had reintroduced “ re l i g i o u s places’’ within the ambit of silence zone rules.
Anna Dani, principal secretary (home), in an affidavit, told the court that about 1,313 religious places had been identified in the city and the BMC would put up silence zone boards within three months. The state had initially, in its notification, asked municipal bodies in the state to demarcate 100 m around educational institutions, hospitals and courts as silence zones.
The HC had,while hearing a PIL filed by city-based NGO Aawaz Foundation, asked the state to explain the reason for deleting places for worship from the regulations.
“The new notification means a ban on the use of loudspeakers, musical instruments and honking in the areas demarcated as silence zones, including around religious places,’’ said advocate Uday Warunjikar, counsel for another petitioner from Sangli. Under the law, violation of the rules is punishable with a jail term of up to five years and fine of Rs 1 lakh.
Legal experts say temples, mosques, or churches could still use loudspeakers if they ensured that the sound did not exceed 50 decibels during the day.
This follows a 2003 high court judgment which said the institutions could use loudspeakers within their premises if they complied with the prescribed decibel levels.
Further, for the forthcoming Ganpati festival, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board had directed all utsav mandals to maintain the noise levels in silence zones, said Dani.
The principal secretary told the court that the state had also designated district magistrates, municipal commissioners and police commissioners among others as authorities to implement noise pollution rules. Between January and July 2009, traffic authorities registered 67,873 cases against vehicle owners for honking or using musical horns in silence zones and collected over Rs 43.82 lakh as fine. The Mumbai police have been equipped with 88 noise meters to control noise levels, the affidavit added.
A division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Ajay Khanwilkar asked the government to ensure that its directives on the noise rules as well as identification and demarcation of silence zones was implemented across Maharashtra within two weeks.
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