Considering a letter sent by an octogenarian on noise pollution as a petition, the National Green Tribunal — Southern Bench — directed the State Transport Department to ensure that air horns are not used in any vehicle.
The Tribunal took suo motu cognizance of the case based on a letter filed by A.M. Joseph of Mylapore. According to the letter sent by the petitioner, for the past 18 months, all vehicles, including state-owned buses, were using high decibel air horns despite a ban by the Supreme Court.
“Since I am a senior citizen, I am not able to file a proper petition. I request the lordship to treat this letter as a writ petition, and summon transport officials and take the needful action,” the letter states.
“My wish is to see public and private vehicles obey the apex court order and noise pollution controlled,” reads the letter.
During the course of the hearing, the second Bench of NGT, Southern Zone, comprising judicial member P. Jyothimani and expert member R. Nagendran, asked the police department to take action against those who use such horns and impose a fine as per the Motor Vehicles Act. “They should also slap a fine of Rs. 1,000 under the Polluter-Pays Principle of the Environmental Protection Act,” said Justice Jyothimani.
The Directorate of College and School Education and Vice-Chancellors of various universities have been directed to inform their institutions to comply. The Transport Department has been directed to file a status report on April 17.
