Gujarat High Court Rejects Plea To Ban Azaan On Loudspeakers (image-pixabay)

The Gujarat Hight Court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the ban of loudspeakers at mosques citing noise pollution. A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee termed the pleas as “wholly misconceived” as it failed to show how human voice through loud speakers raised noise decibels beyond permissible levels.

The court also quizzed the petitioner that if it was the case, then the noise of bells and gongs during ‘aarti’ at a temple is also heard outside.

The petition, filed by Dharmendra Prajapati, who claimed to be a doctor by profession, claimed that the noise pollution caused by “azaan” when played through loudspeakers affects people”s, especially children”s health and causes inconvenience otherwise, reports Bar and Bench.

The court asked the petitioner during the hearing, “In your temple, the morning aarti with drums and music also starts early, at 3 am. So, does it not cause any kind of noise to anyone? Can you say the noise of ghanta (bell) and ghadiyal (gong) remain in temple premises only? Does (it) not percolate outside the temple?”

The petitioner pointed out the unlike aarti in temples, azaan takes place five times a day when the court said that it won”t be “entertaining this kind of PIL” and “it is a faith and practice going for years, and it is for 5–10 minutes”.

The court further emphasised that the petitioner failed to show if he has measured decibel level during Azaan in any specific area. The court also noted that the petition failed to create any foundation on scientific method to measure noise decibels during Azaan to demonstrate the sound created by making Azaan for 10 minutes at a stretch in different hours of the day would cause noise pollution.