'What about aarti?': Gujarat HC rejects ban on loudspeakers at mosques

The Gujarat High Court quashed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought a ban on the use of loudspeakers for azaan at mosques.

Refusing to entertain the PIL that was filed by Bajrang Dal leader Shaktisinh Zala, a division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee noted, '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, does not percolate outside the temple?'

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The petition claimed that noise pollution caused by azan when played through loudspeakers affects people, especially children's health and causes inconvenience otherwise. The high court, however, in its decision stated that the claims had no scientific foundation.

The court said, "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"