'Doesn't sound of bells, gong go outside temples,' Gujarat HC dismisses PIL seeking loudspeaker ban in mosques

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court Tuesday rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking ban on loudspeakers in mosques while holding that ten minutes of azan or call to prayer can't "achieve the decibel to the extent of creating noise pollution". The court held that the PIL was "misconceived".

The division bench of chief justice Sunita Agarwal and justice Aniruddha P Mayee rejected the PIL filed by a resident of state capital Gandhinagar. The petitioners-Dharmendra Prajapati and Shaktisinh Zala, a Bajrang Dal activist, had filed PIL on the ground that recital of azan five times a day created noise pollution and disturbances. During pendency, Prajapati, who is a doctor, had withdrawn the PIL.

Chief justice Agarwal also questioned the petitioner's lawyer D G Shukla whether playing music in temples during bhajans and morning aarti with drums were not causing noise pollution. When Shukla defended that they happen in closed premises, the bench questioned if he could say that the sound of ghanta (bell) and ghadiyal (gong) remains only in temples and didn't percolate outside. It said that it was a matter of faith and practice going for years and it is barely for 5 -10 minutes.

"This is a wholly misconceived PIl. The prayer in the petition is to ban the use of loudspeakers for azan placed in the mosque at different points of time during the course of the day. The only ground to seek direction is to stop the use as it creates noise pollution which is affecting the health of the public at large,"

The bench while dismissing the PIl stated, "It is pertinent to note that the use of loudspeakers in the mosque at different points of time for azan is only for ten minutes or less than that at a particular point of time which couldn't be disputed by the counsel. We fail to understand how human voice making azan through loudspeaker could achieve the decibel to the extent of creating noise pollution causing health hazards for the public at large."

The court held that the petitioner couldn't explain any scientific method to ascertain if "sound created by making azan for ten minutes at a stretch at different hours of the day would raise the level of the sound to cause the noise pollution." It added that noise pollution is not a "perception" but there is a scientific method to measure it which the petition lacked.