SC Stays Bombay HC Order Granting Interim Stay On Centre’s Notification On Noise Pollution Rules [Read Order]

After a full bench of the Bombay High Court ordered interim stay on the Centre’s new amendment to Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has stayed the operation of the full bench order dated September 1 as an interim measure.

The bench of CJI Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud was hearing a special leave application filed by the Union of India along with the state of Maharashtra against the full bench order.

Case Background

While the hearing on the implementation and compliance of Noise Pollution Rules 2000 was taking place in the high court, the state government filed an affidavit stating that in light of Centre’s new amendment to the said rules, no silence zones existed and the same had to be notified by the state.

This drew the court’s ire as an earlier judgment passed in 2016 declared all areas within 100 m of any educational institutions, courts and hospitals as silence zones.

A total of 1,573 silence zones existed in the state before the new notification.

However, the state in its response decided to seek transfer of these matters to another bench of which Justice Oka was not a part, alleging bias against him.

The move backfired and the state had to withdraw these allegations.

Finally, on September 1, a full bench headed by Justice Oka granted interim stay on the notification.

Interestingly, in the said order, the bench headed Justice AS Oka had clarified: “We make it clear that for a period of four weeks from today, there will not be any prosecutions for violation of Rule 6 of the Principal Rules on the basis of the incidents taking place from today.”

This means that even though the notification was stayed, no person would be prosecuted for flouting Rules in a silence zone at least for four weeks.

However, the Supreme Court decided to stay the HC order and said: “As we have stayed the operation of the impugned order, we are absolutely certain that the High Court shall not pass any further interim order in this regard. Let the matter be listed on 22nd September, 2017.”

Read the Bombay High Court Order Here