Enough is enough, civic bodies should not have unbridled power, the Bombay High Court said on Wednesday.
Enough is enough, civic bodies should not have unbridled power, the Bombay High Court said on Wednesday.
Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on noise pollution in the city, the court said people are inconvenienced during festivals because of rising noise levels and pandals springing up in the middle of roads.
And this happens because corporations dole out permissions without bothering to find out if rules are being followed.
The judges were so miffed that they asked the petitioner, Dr Mahesh Bedekar, to amend his PIL and challenge the powers given to municipal corporations to grant such permissions (pandals on roads, rising noise levels).
Bedekar, who runs a hospital in Thane, had initiated the PIL saying noise pollution rules should be strictly implemented, especially in silence zones — near hospitals, schools, courts and places of worship.
A drastic power has been given, said justice DK Deshmukh. “There are places where entire roads are blocked and traffic is brought to a standstill.” People carrying loudspeakers on handcarts dance on roads, Deshmukh said. “This blocks the entire traffic. This is murderous.”
Sanjeev Gorwadkar, advocate for Bedekar, said they were not against festivals. “We just want noise pollution rules to be strictly implemented so that others are not inconvenienced,” he said.
Ram Apte, counsel for the Thane Municipal Corporation, told the court that the civic body exercises its power judiciously. “We see to it that guidelines are followed before granting permission for temporary structures,” Apte said.
But a division bench of Justice Deshmukh and Justice AV Mohta observed that the guidelines were not enough. “There are no specifics... how much portion of the road can be blocked and for how many days. Most of the activities take place on the roads,” Deshmukh said.
Asking Bedekar to challenge the constitutional validity of section 234 of the BMC Act that governs all the corporations in the state, the court said pandals should just not be permitted on roads.
Nowadays festivals are commercialised and politicised, Gorwadkar said. “Every festival belongs to some party or the other. These parties put up banners and posters of local leaders.” Gorwadkar said they would amend the petition within a week.
Since the changed petition would challenge the constitutional validity of a particular section, the court issued a notice to state advocate general Ravi Kadam.
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