The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has taken suo motu cognisance of the incident in which a seven-year-old Class 2 girl died inside her classroom last month, allegedly while a procession carrying a loud DJ system was passing by the school in Balrampur district.
Mehrotra mentioned the urgency citing the September 22 incident, widely reported in the media. Though conscious of an order dated January 10, 2023, in WPIL No. 24981 of 2017, the bench said that as an exception, a separate PIL was required with regard to the incident and larger issues, as it would involve separate departments and it may not be feasible to array all of them in the present PIL. It directed the Registry to register a separate suo motu PIL and list on October 12 as a fresh matter. The ongoing PIL on noise pollution will be listed for hearing on October 9.
“We have not drawn any conclusion as to the cause of death of the child, but the fact that loudspeakers or music instruments were being played at a very high pitch and immediately thereafter, the child collapsed in the classroom persuades us to take cognisance of the matter as noise pollution is now becoming a menace,” the court said.
