The state government came up with noise rules based on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendations in 1989.
The Bombay High Court had disposed of the first Public Interest Litigation on noise pollution in 1994. But the petitioners felt that the court had not taken cognisance of the report made by the eight-member committee that was appointed by the HC to study noise pollution in the state and suggest ways to control it.
In 1995, Dr YT Oke and his group filed the second petition and on December 17, 1995, the court directed the Maharashtra government to bring all state Acts dealing with the noise nuisance like the Bombay Police Act in conformity with the central Environment Protection Act. This has not been done yet. The environment ministry introduced noise rules in 2000. “These rules were quite elaborate. We had raised objections to the permission given to fire crackers with noise levels up to 125 dB,” says Oke.
In 2003, Oke filed the third petition saying that the police were not following the noise rules. The petition also alleged that silence zones had not been demarcated. The Bombay HC directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to identify areas that can be classified as silence zones.
