Tamil Nadu: Madras High Court directs authoritirs to enusre noise pollution norms are not violated

The Madras High Court has directed authorities including that of the Pollution Control Board to make sure that noise pollution norms are followed so that students and people, in general, are not disturbed.

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose, in a suo moto Public Interest Litigation petition directed the PCB and Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department to make sure that the noise pollution norms are followed.

"We only direct the PCB and HR and CE to make sure that no temples or...no institution violates the noise pollution norms causing disturbance to people living in and around including students and elderly," the bench said in its recent direction.

Following a letter by some students including Divya, who claimed to belong to a village in Gudalur o Nilgiris district to the high court, the bench treated it as a PIL plea and sought a report from the authorities.

In their letter, they said they were class 12 students and submitted that songs played by temples in their village through loudspeakers disturbed them.

A counter affidavit was filed by the Inspector of Police, Gudalur, Nilgiris district stating that Divya was not residing in the area and was also untraceable.

However, the villagers and the temple authorities appeared before the revenue divisional officer and agreed not to use any loudspeakers, it was submitted.

The first bench dropped further proceedings after the submissions of the counsels for HR and CE and PCB.