Allahabad high court ordered to remove all the loud speakers, smile Sonu Nigam

On April 17th, 2017, well-known Bollywood singer Sonu Nigam in a series of tweets, commented against the use of loudspeakers and questioned when the “forced religiousness” in India will end. Sonu Nigam said that he had been woken up early morning suddenly by the sound of ‘azaan’. He made a valid point through his tweets. Sonu said that such use of loudspeakers needs to be stopped no matter which religion is practicing the use of loudspeakers.Shortly after his tweets, there was a major controversy and Sonu Nigam faced a barrage of abuses by the religious fanatics. There were extensive debates over this issue on the electronic media. Actress Suchitra Krishnamoorthy and others too backed the views expressed by singer Sonu Nigam about the use of loud speakers for religious purposes, especially during night.The Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench has ordered the government of the state of Uttar Pradesh and the State Pollution Control Board to remove all loudspeakers that were installed without permission at religious places. Any loudspeaker in the state that was being used without the permission of the concerned authority will be taken down today itself. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court issued the order on the matter citing the provisions of the Noise Pollution Rules, 2000. According to the order that was issued, the authority and the District Magistrates of the UP state have been guided to classify various areas into industrial, residential, commercial and silence zones. Each area will be having a separate maximum limit of permitted sound level. If these norms are not followed then one could land up in the jail for about five years and may even have to pay the penalty of Rs 1 Lakh.