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| | | | | Comments On News Reports | | | Contempt Petition re: Noise Pollution
Contempt Petition as filed on 9/5 for urgent circulation, admitted 14/5 - Fix for hearing 5/6- notices sent
SYNOPSIS
The Petitioner is a responsible citizen of Goa who is conscious of the democratic rights of every individual citizen of India through the Constitution of India.
The Petitioner is a conscientious objector where he cannot accept the stand that ‘if a thing, a system, a way of life, is acceptable to a large number of persons, then an individual must automatically accept t he same against his/her will. The Petitioner believes that even if there are a million people who accept an illegality, one individual may stand by his rights to demand the removal of that illegality and punish the guilty without let or hindrance., if the Constitutional Rights are to be respected.
The Petitioner has worked hard towards promoting peace and tranquility, it being the need of the hour in today’s noisy world, especially in serene villages of Goa where one is able to enjoy natural sounds indigenous to village life in its bountiful undisturbed clean environment.
Even then, the Petitioner believes that a person has to be in tune with the modern ‘noisy world’, but provided that there is a balanced compromise between unavoidable ‘Noise’ and relatively ‘Noise Free’ ambience. This establishes the fact that if one has the right to make ‘noise’, then one also has the right not to be ‘disturbed’, therefore the necessity for a compromise.
Police Inspector Shri. Manjunath Dessai has defied all norms of upholding law and order, being himself the sworn Officer of the Law Enforcement Agency, the Police Force, and therefore, he has violated the ‘code of conduct’ with respect to the rights of a citizen ‘complainant’ who was only trying to point out to him that according to the law in force regarding playing of loud-music, he was duty-bound to implement it vis a vis the ongoing ‘noise pollution’. But instead, Shri Manjunath Dessai, being the senior police officer in charge of the Police Station, is seen to have engineered the resultant flare-up by:-
(a) Asking the complainant to register his complaint in person at the PS at a very late hour in the night so that his identity be verified.
(b) As reported in the Gomantak times, sending the police team to the venue of the function and aggravating the situation and ‘tempers’ of the organizers as well as the participants at the function by not just ordering the sound system to be shut, but be ‘smashed’ completely if they failed to shut it down, thereby giving the organizers of the function the reason for taking revenge against the complainant, as has been done by stoning the house of the complainant to warn conscious citizens against such complaints.
Therefore, PI Shri. Manjunath Dessai must be appropriately disciplined so that he may never repeat this dangerous trend again. However, disciplining him with a mere temporary suspension, which is the usual operating norms with the police force in Goa to allow things to cool down, will only make him bolder to repeat, perhaps willfully, the same mistake more often in the belief that he will get off scot-free. Hence, in order to set an exemplary and un-compromising ‘precedent’ to the rest of the law enforcement Officers, PI Shri. Manjunath Dessai must be dismissed from service, for it is said: “FORGIVE THOSE WHO HAVE ERRED, BUT PUNISH THOSE WHO ARE GUILTY”
PETITIONER
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF BOMBAY AT GOA
CONTEMPT PETITION No………..
[IN WRIT PETIION 97 OF 97]
Shri. Floriano Conceicao Lobo,
r/o Pirazona, Moira Bardez Goa …………… Petitioner
V/s
1. Shri. Manjunath Dessai,
Inspector of Police, Ponda PS, Ponda-Goa.
2. Govt. of Goa, through the
The Chief Secretary,
Secretariat, Porvorim.
3. Collector of North Goa,
Panaji-Goa.
4. Collector of South Goa,
Margao-Goa.
5. The Inspector General of Police,
Panaji-Goa. …………….Respondents
May it please Your Lordships,
The petitioner had submitted a letter petition to the Honorable Justices of the Bombay High Court way back in 1997, portraying his frustrations at the way the governmental authorities were down-playing citizen’s complaints against excessive ‘noise pollution’ by way of amplified music and/or voice transmissions with or without the necessary permissions from the relevant designated authorities beyond the reasonable time and even late into the dead of the night, thereby disturbing the peace and tranquility of residents in thickly populated residential localities. In that letter it was indicated that the police, which is the enforcing authority of the laws, rules and regulations governing the Noise pollution vide the of the ‘Madhya Pradesh ‘Loud Music Noise Pollution Act’- SAMVAT 2008, in force at that time, were the silent collaborators and colluders with the perpetrators indulging in creating widespread noise pollution in the state.
The Honorable High Court of Bombay was kind enough to acknowledge this simple letter petition by converting it into the PIL Writ Petition No. 97 of 97.
The Petitioner wishes to introduce the following documents from the original Writ Petition 97 of 97 in this Petition to argue that there is a case for ‘Contempt of Court’ as is made out against the above named respondents.
1. A copy of the ‘Order’ of the Honorable High Court of Bombay at Goa in PIL Writ Petition 97 of 97.
..........Exhibit AAA
2. The affidavit filed by the Inspector of Police, Mapusa Police Station.
………. Exhibit BBB
3. The copy of the ‘circulars’ filed in the honorable High Court by SP (South) and the Additional District Magistrate, North Goa District, Panaji, to all in charge of Police Stations in South Goa District, S.D.P.Os Margao and Vasco, and Sub Divisional Magistrates/Executive Magistrates in North Goa District as well as to the Superintendent of Police, North Goa, respectively.
……….Exhibit CCC
The Petitioner deems it pertinent to state at this juncture that, when Justice Chapalgaonkar finished dictating the ‘Order’ in the above Suo Motto Writ Petition, the Petitioner, appearing in person, had informed the Honorable High Court that the ‘Order’ did not direct the police sufficiently to be vigilant and that the ‘police’ itself was the culprit, abetting the noise pollution excesses thereby indirectly encouraging t them.
The Petitioner likes to state that in response, Justice Chapalgaonkar had reminded the Petitioner that he must be patient and must also realize that ‘Rome was not built in a day’. Justice Chapalgaonkar had further informed the Petitioner that if he found the situation not improving to his satisfaction, he could always approach this Honorable High Court again.
The Petitioner had to restrain himself with patience as advised by Justice Chapalgaonkar to the unabated continuance of noise pollution by the chronic violator Shree Rawalnath Temple, located at Tambdi Mati, Pirazona Moira, in the vicinity of the residence of the Petitioner, the very reason the letter Petition was filed with the Honorable High Court in the first place. This suffocation is expressed in the letter written to the SP North, Panjim, with a copy marked to the Hon. Home Minister, Govt. of Goa.
............Exhibit DDD
The situation was seen to be getting under control to some extent after the above exercise, prompting the Petitioner to write a letter to Mr. R.K. Patre, PI, Mapusa, in the capacity of Hon. General Secretary of the then newly registered NGO, in appreciation of the efforts made at his end to bring some peace to the serene villages in the area. The Petitioner wishes to introduce this letter only for the express reason to show to the Lordships that even small action in the right direction is waiting to be appreciated with warmth that it deserves. The Petitioner subsequent was invited for a Police-Public meet.
.…….Exhibit EEE (1 to 2)
In order to indicate to this Hon. High Court how the situation has gone out of control in the state with respect to the non-control of loud music noise pollution, the Petitioner takes the liberty of introducing various letters written to the relevant governmental authorities by ‘Bailancho Ekvott’ a women’s NGO based in Margao, copies of which have been posted to the Petitioner for the necessary information and support.
……….Exhibit FFF ( 1 to 5)
The little mercies shown as indicated through Exhibit EEE dried out, the Noise Pollution getting terribly out of hand with the introduction of beach rave parties and indiscriminate open air functions continuing late into the nights disturbing the peace and tranquility of wholly residential areas with powerfully loud and unbearable music, not allowing people, healthy as well as the sick, senior citizens or students requiring peace to relax or to study. The Petitioner has written many a letters to the concerned relevant authorities in the period between 1998 and 2007 in the hope and with patience that the situation will be restored to normalcy to respect the time to time directives of the Hon. High Court and even the Supreme Court.
The Petitioner wishes to introduce a letter written to the Collector (North), Mr. Mihir Vardhan, Chairman of the Committee constituted under the directives of this Hon. High Court in PIL Writ Petition 4 of 2006, of which the Petitioner is a member, in complete frustration, informing him that this letter will be used to file a ‘Contempt of Court’ proceedings against the authorities.
..........Exhibit GGG
The petitioner is highly aggrieved by the action of the Police Inspector Mr. Manjunath Dessai of the Ponda Police Station in the matter reported in the Gomantak Times dated May 1, 2008 captioned “ LOUD MUSIC – Complain and get sound slap”, wherein it is reported that the identity of the complainant was divulged by the PI to the organizers of the objectionable event continuing much beyond the permitted deadline of 10 p.m. resulting in the stoning and damaging of the house of the complainant.
…….Exhibit HHH
The Petitioner wishes to introduce in this Petition a letter to the editor written by a citizen of Goa and published in the Gomantak Times dated 5 May, 2008 captioned “PI instigating communal violence?” to reflect the incident in Ponda.
……….Exhibit I I I
The Petitioner having been in telephonic contact with the ‘victim’ of the Ponda incident after reading about it in the Gomantak Times, regrets to inform your Lordships that the Petitioner has been informed by the ‘victim’ that his house has been stoned, yet again, after the initial flare-up. The victim Mr. Mario Coelho also informs the Petitioner that he does not know who in the Ponda Police Station received his telephonic complain and asked him to give the complain at the PS in person. It can be deduced that the complainant is visibly shaken as he says that he is paralyzed with fear resulting in his inability to think clearly. That as a result of this, his whole household is living in terror not knowing what to do next and to whom to turn to for help. He also informs the Petitioner that since no action to safe-guard his property was forthcoming from the Ponda PS, he had to report the matter to the higher police authorities, who has been given some security by way of a police watch at his house, but he is not sure how long it will continue and that he is getting paranoid with anxiety for the safety of his family members.
The Petitioner wishes to inform your Lordships that the Petitioner finds the Collector (North) sympathetic to the grievances of the people affected by excessive loud-music noise pollution. In the instance reported above in ‘Exhibit GGG’, the Collector has gone to the extent of confiding with the Petitioner that he considers the State of Goa to be a lawless State and that the police must share the major responsibility for this. In view of ‘Exhibit HHH’ & ‘Exhibit I I I ’, it is amply clear that the sentiments portrayed by the Collector are very much in place.
The Petitioner therefore prays:-
(1) That Goa Police may be strictly directed not to play with the sentiments, peace and tranquility of the people of Goa by pitting them one against the other to create flare-ups such as the one in the instant case which could have been with or without communal intent, especially when the raison d’etre of the ‘police’ is to prevent and/or defuse such flare-ups taking place in the first place.
(2) That the incident that has taken place in Ponda, and the conduct of PI Shri. Manjunath Dessai, incharge of the Ponda PS thereof, qualifies for the ‘CONTEMPT’ of this Honorable Court with respect to the assurances given to this Hon. High Court by the Police and other authorities through their affidavits & circulars. The Petitioner strongly and sincerely urges this Hon. Court to direct the Government of Goa to ‘OUTRIGHT DISMISS FROM SERVICE’ Shri. Manjunath Dessai, PI of Ponda Police Station, for his acts of omission and commission, holding him solely responsible for allowing such a damaging incident to take place within his jurisdiction.
(3) That the Organizing Committee of the said function which resulted in the avoidable incident be suitably penalized for not adhering to the directives of the sound permission granted to it, if at all, so that a signal is sent as a deterrent against the general careless attitude shown towards laws, rules and regulations in force in the State vis a vis Noise Pollution.
(4) That the Petitioner strongly believes that if the ‘ Loud-Music Noise Pollution’ in the State of Goa has not been able to be contained in more than a decade since the disposal of the first PIL Writ Petition No. 97 of 1997, and in spite of many subsequently others that followed, it will not be contained if this opportunity is lost to set a firm precedent of penalizing the errant officials for their serious lapses in the conduct of their duties. Therefore, though it pains to inflict so harsh a punishment such as the dismissal from ‘hard earned’ service, it must be done in the larger interest of safe-guarding the well-being of the people at large, through instilling confidence in them that the ‘rule of law’ and ‘justice’ exists and that there is the all prevailing ‘discipline’ in the working of the Governmental machinery, for the maintenance of which they pay their taxes.
Petitioner
Date: 8 May, 2008
Place: Panjim
AFFIDAVIT
I, Floriano Conceicao Lobo, major of age, married, self employed, resident of Pirazona, Moira Bardez, Goa, do hereby solemnly declare on oath that whatever I have stated in the above mentioned Petition is true to the best of my knowledge.
Petitioner
Date: 09/05/08
Place: Panjim
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Goa Su-Raj Party has been in existence since 31/08/2000.
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