The writ petition filed before the Goa High Court in 1999 by the Goa Environment Federation, represented by Avertanus de Souza on the subject of Noise Pollution concluded by the Division Bench by order dated September 5, 2005 of the Division Bench comprising Justice RM Lodha and NA Britto. This order states that in view of the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Forum for Protection of Environment and Sound Pollution v/s The Union of India all concerned authorities have to comply with the directions given by the Supreme Court in the aforesaid judgement. Although the final order is brief the interim orders were many and took care of the problem from time to time . There were total of nearly 50 orders passed in this petition -- starting with Justice Sri Krishna’s order of January 18, 2000, which set the tone for a ban on night time noise . Through the petition the issue of noise pollution, noise rules, and the directions issued by the High Court received wide spread publicity and the writ petition served in myriad ways to educate the citizens of Goa on the subject of noise pollution. I believe that the court sought, by its orders, to discipline the public rather than punish them. In this particular case the intent of GEF was to inculcate civic sense among citizens.
