Sarin to head panel on noise pollution

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 14

Just about four months after the Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo motu cognisance of nuisance created by loud amplified music emanating from marriage palaces and private farmhouses around Chandigarh in the states of Punjab and Haryana, the Bench today ordered the setting up of a committee.

Comprising senior advocates and law officers from both states and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, the committee, headed by senior advocate ML Sarin, will examine the problem of noise pollution. Sarin has already been appointed amicus curiae or the friend of the court in the matter. The other committee members include senior advocates Reeta Kohli and Akshay Bhan. Law officers from Haryana and Punjab Deepak Balyan and Sheerish Gupta, along with UT senior standing counsel Pankaj Jain, will also be a part of the panel, which will submit its report after examining the issue.

The directions by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Arun Palli came during the hearing of a suo motu or court-on-its-own motion case.  The High Court had earlier directed the matter to be treated as a public interest litigation for framing of guidelines, particularly in view of the impending wedding season. 

In his note, Justice GS Sandhawalia of the High Court had asserted that the Chandigarh Police, only recently, expressed its helplessness on account of the fact that it had no writ or control over the amplified music emanating from villages around the city, despite several complaints from residents, helplessly exposed to loud music.

Justice Sandhawalia had added: “The issue arises that who will guard the guardians and whether such elected representatives/officers are beyond control and have total disregard for other citizens of the country and residents of the village, including residents of Chandigarh itself, and the wildlife, which is sensitive to such loud noise, and seeks refuge in the sanctuaries which are shrinking on account of human greed”.

The HC was told that noise from the city’s vicinity during marriage celebrations could be heard in northern sectors and the matter had been taken up by the police with their counterparts in Nayagaon.

Farmhouses, Marriage palaces to blame?

The committee, headed by senior advocate ML Sarin, will examine the problem of noise pollution emanating from marriage palaces and farmhouses. Sarin has already been appointed amicus curiae or the friend of the court in the matter.