A plea seeking a ban on the use of loudspeakers at mosques in Gujarat will be taken up by a division bench of the Gujarat High Court on June 19, an official said on Wednesday.
The plea has been filed by a doctor, Dharmendra Prajapati.
The Gujarat government has not responded to a high court notice issued over a year ago regarding the public interest litigation (PIL).
The court directed the advocate-general on Wednesday to file the government’s reply by June 12.
Prajapati, who resides in Sector 5C in Gandhinagar, claimed that Muslim individuals come to pray at different times and use loudspeakers, causing disturbance to the nearby residents.
He claims that the use of loudspeakers during Muslims’ prayer times infringes on his fundamental rights.
He has cited an Allahabad High Court judgment that rejected a request to allow the Muslim call for prayer to be sounded with amplifying devices in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district.
Prajapati also submitted a written complaint to the Gandhinagar ‘mamlatdar’ in June 2020, which was forwarded to the Sector 7 police station.
However, no action was taken in response.
The petitioner also claimed that the use of loudspeakers during prayer times violates noise pollution rules, which prescribe a permissible noise level of 80 decibels.
He has sought direction from the appropriate authority to ban the use of loudspeakers in mosques across the state. — IANS