Firstpost:
Mumbai: Saturday, 19 September 2015.
Bombay High
Court has ordered that loudspeakers be removed from mosques that do not have
requisite permission for the same in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
According to
a report in Times of India, Navi Mumbai resident Santosh Pachalag had filed a
Public Interest Litigation (PIL) earlier in 2015 to raise the issue of
"illegal use of loudspeakers" by Navi Mumbai mosques.
A division
bench of Justices VM Kanade and P D Kode, heard the PIL, and said that
unauthorized loudspeakers, irrespective of whether they were used in mosques,
Ganeshotsav or any festival, must be confiscated as they cause noise pollution.
"They are a source of continuous noise
pollution. It is impossible to sleep during Ganeshotsav, particularly its last
five days," the report quoted Justice Kanade as saying.
According to
another report, an RTI plea had
unearthed that 45 of 49 mosques in the Navi Mumbai area didn't have permission
to use loudspeakers.
Muslim
leaders too have welcomed the court's decision.
"Azaan
is mandatory to namaz, not the use of loudspeakers. Azaan should be sonorous
and easy on the ears. If loudspeakers are inconveniencing fellow citizens, I
would say the mosques should remove them before the police take action,"
the report quoted senior community leader Dr MA Patankar as saying.
The court had
directed the police to prohibit religious places from using loudspeakers without
requisite permit between 10 pm and 6 am and the police have already taken down
loudspeakers form five mosques and two temples that did not have the required
permission, a report in the Logical Indian says.
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