The Uttarakhand High Court has directed the state government to ensure that permission to use loudspeakers are granted only on the condition that the sound level does not exceed five decibels, reported the Hindustan Times on Tuesday. The sound of a pin dropping or a person breathing is 10 decibels.
“The state government is directed to ensure that no loudspeaker or public address system shall be used by any person including religious bodies in temples, mosques and gurudwaras without the written permission of the authority even during day time,” a division bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Lok Pal Singh said, according to The Indian Express.
The court has also ordered heads of police department to ensure that “no horn [is] used in silence zones between 10 pm and 6 am…except during public emergency.”
The bench was hearing a petition filed by one Mahendra Singh seeking action against a factory in Haridwar district. The court then slapped a penalty of Rs 5 crore on the industrial unit in Haridwar for causing “large-scale air pollution and water pollution”.
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