The Bajrang Dal petitioner claimed that “noise pollution” caused by azan when played through loudspeakers affects people’s, especially children’s health and causes inconvenience otherwise.

A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee asked the petitioner whether the noise of bells and gongs during `aarti’ at a temple is not heard outside the premises’.

The bench sought to know on what grounds the petitioner claimed noise pollution is caused.

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Azan is conducted for a maximum of ten minutes at a time at different hours of the day, the court pointed out. “We fail to understand how the human voice making azan through loudspeaker in the morning could achieve the decibel (level) to the extent of creating noise pollution, causing health hazards for the public at large,” it further said.

The Gujarat High Court underscored, “We are not entertaining this kind of PIL. It is a faith and practice going for years, and it is for 5-10 minutes. In your temple, the morning aarti with drums and music also starts early at 3 am. So it does not cause any kind of noise to anyone? Can you say the noise of ghanta (bell) and ghadiyal (gong) remains in temple premises only and does not percolate outside the temple?”

The high court noted that the claims in the petition had no scientific foundation.

There is a scientific method for measuring noise pollution, but the petition does not provide any data to show that a ten-minute azan causes noise pollution, the court added.

“We therefore, do not find any good ground to entertain this PIL. It is thus, dismissed,” the court said.

(With PTI inputs)

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Updated: 29 Nov 2023, 12:50 PM IST