The Bombay High Court emphasized on Wednesday that noise regulations must be uniformly applied across all public festivals, asserting that if loudspeakers and sound systems are harmful during the Ganesh festival, they are equally harmful during Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi processions. The observation came from a division bench comprising Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar during the hearing of public interest litigations (PILs) which sought to ban the use of DJs, dance, and laser lights in Eid celebrations.
The litigations argued that the use of such high-decibel sound systems during the processions was not prescribed by Islamic texts such as the Quran or Hadith, and petitioned for civic bodies and police to withhold permission for these devices. The court referenced a similar order it passed last month ahead of the Ganesh festival, which reinforced the ban on exceeding permissible noise levels as specified under the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000.
Addressing the petitioner’s request to specifically include Eid in the noise regulation order, the bench clarified that their previous directive covered all “public festivals,” thereby encompassing Eid as well. Consequently, the petitions were disposed of with the court’s reaffirmation that the harmful effects of excessive noise apply universally across different cultural celebrations.
Regarding the petitions against the use of laser lights, the court expressed the need for scientific evidence to support claims of their harmful effects. The judges stressed the importance of thorough research before approaching the court with such claims, noting that the judiciary relies on concrete evidence to make informed decisions. They emphasized the petitioner’s responsibility to aid the court by providing well-researched information, humorously remarking on their own lack of expertise with the statement, “We do not know the ‘L’ of laser.”
