The Bombay High Court recently ordered the Pune Police to look into the complaint of a senior citizen, who have highlighted the issue of noise pollution due to the use of firecrackers in his vicinity. The HC even slammed authorities for their failure to take action against the violators.
A bench of Justices Prasanna Varale and Anil Kilor said that the police authorities upon receiving complaints about noise pollution or other environment-related issues are duty-bound to take action against lawbreakers.
The judges were hearing a plea filed by one Arvind Patil through advocate Uday Warunjikar, highlighting the non-application of mind by the authorities in the Pune Police and even not acting on his complaint.
As per Patil, in December 2019, he had filed a complaint with the Police Control Room number of the Pune Police against the loud noise created in his vicinity due to the bursting of firecrackers. He specifically stated that this wasn't a solitary incident but a routine in his area in Bibwewadi.
Further, he approached the Bibwewadi police station and filed a complaint about the same under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and also the Noise Pollution(Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000.
Despite complaints filed even with the higher authorities and also the official WhatsApp group of the Pune Police, Patil claimed that apart from recording his statements, the police authorities did little to resolve the issue.
At this, the judges said, "The authorities on the backdrop of this fact ought to have collected the material from Patil or ought to have verified the material supplied by him in the form of the photoshoots."
"But the authorities relying on the statements of the persons showingignorance, issued a letter to him. As such the State Authorities, who are duty-bound to take appropriate steps against the lawbreakers without doing so, only forwarded the communication to Patil under the caption of ‘Samajpatra," the bench added.
The judges accordingly issued a directive to the senior officers in the Pune Police to take note of the issue. It ordered the DCP level officer to conduct a thorough enquiry into the issue and file a report within a period of eight weeks.
