This is to clarify apparent misconceptions of the
Supreme Court Order which seemingly allows extention
of time for loudspeaker use for Navratri in spite of
it's earlier denial for Ganpati.

Prior to Ganpati, The Maharahstra Government
approached the SC for relaxation of their
comprehensive Order. This was denied.

The Gujarat Government(perhaps learning from the
mistake of the Maharashtra Government) did not seek
relaxation but pointed out that a Notification dated
22nd October 2002 granted State Governments certain
discretionary powers to relax time deadlines.The
Supreme Court conceded that it had not considered the
aspect of the validity of the notification in it's
July Order and that it would now do so. This is the
'mistake' referred to in the Press.

A date for hearing this has been fixed. In the
meantime, since the Notification is in existence, duly
gazetted etc, it would continue to operate.

This is not a relaxation and the issue in question is
still to be determined. Challenge to the validity of
the Notification of 2002 is the subject matter of our
writ petition pending in the Bombay High Court,
in which interim Orders disallowing loudspeaker use in
Silence Zones were passed in 2003.

For the record, it is my observation, while monitoring
noise levels at various mandals in Bombay over the
last 2 days, that loudspeakers being used even before
10pm are not placed in Silence Zones in comformity
with the earlier Bombay High Court Order and are
generally tuned to low decibel levels.

It is also confirmed by several people who reside near
mosques that early morning azaans with loudspeakers
have ceased.

All of which goes to show that the Government and
Police may be extremely effective when they choose to
do so, in spite of some of their public statements and
political expediencies.

As usual, there are certain important exceptions to
this, for example, the Dagdi Chawl mandal, which
recorded a decibel level of 100dB at 9.15pm. Even this
was switched off at precisely 10pm with the
intervention of several policemen.

Sumaira Abdulali
sumairaabdulali@yahoo.com