Calcutta HC dismisses plea against public address system directive
Kolkata, Aug 18 (IANS) A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition challenging a verbal directive from the West Bengal Police regarding the removal of loudspeakers and microphones from mosques in the state.
Dismissing the petition, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Atarup Banerjee clarified that the court would not pass any order based on a verbal directive by the state police.
The bench also observed that the petition was filed solely based on media reports and that the 4,000 mosques on which the purported verbal order was applicable were not parties in the case. Since the court did not hear the mosque authorities’ versions, it said the petition had no merit.
There had been allegations that police were forcibly removing loudspeakers or microphones from religious places, especially mosques, without any legal notice. A public interest litigation was moved at the Calcutta High Court against this purported move by one individual, represented by senior advocate and four‑time Trinamool Congress legislator Kalyan Banerjee.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari recently rubbished the allegations that loudspeakers and microphones were selectively removed from mosques. He informed that more than 5,000 loudspeakers had been removed from various religious places in a special police operation across the state.
Giving statistics, the Chief Minister said a total of 5,299 loudspeakers had been removed from religious places, of which 4,203 were from mosques and 1,096 from temples.
He said the state government took this step in compliance with the 2020 Calcutta High Court verdict on the noise law.
“There is no problem if noise is restricted within permissible limits within the premises of a religious place. The state government has not introduced any new rule and was implementing the Calcutta High Court verdict given during the previous government’s tenure in accordance with the law,” Adhikari said.
–IANS
src/dan