Chief secretary JP Dange may have to face trial if his subordinates fail to file a complete affidavit on the steps taken to curb noise pollution by next week.
Chief secretary JP Dange may not like it. But if his subordinates fail to file a complete affidavit on the steps taken to curb noise pollution by next week, the Bombay high court has some punishment in store for him. Dange may have to stand in court for a day.
The division bench of chief justice Swatanter Kumar and justice AM Khavilkar pulled up the government and secretaries of various departments for not compiling a joint affidavit on the issue and filing it in time for the hearing.
The court had, in the last week, directed the secretaries of enviornment and home departments, Maharashtra pollution control board (MPCB), and BMC to file the joint affidavit. A joint meeting was held by the chief secretary, but the affidavit was not submitted in court on Thursday, as the secretary of the enviornment department was not in town. The high court had specifically directed the MPCB to figure out the noise level of helicopters. As per Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules 2001, the noise level cannot exceed 50 decibels during day and 40 decibels during night.
Hearing the submissions made by government counsels, justice Kumar remarked: “Ask the secretary (environment) to remain present in court on the next hearing, and if the affidavit is not filed before the next hearing, we will have the chief secretary standing in the court for the whole day.”
The court was hearing a PIL filed by NGO Awaaz Foundation and activist Sumaira Abdulali. According to an affidavit filed by the government in 2008, the Mumbai Traffic Police had registered 41,814 cases of pressure/musical/reverse and unnecessary horns and collected Rs31.29 lakh as fine. Till February 15, 2009, the police registered 29,166 cases and collected Rs 2.78 lakh.
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