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5. Restrictions on the use of loudspeakers/public address system-

(1) A loudspeaker or a public address system shall not be used except after obtaining written permission from the authority.

(2) A loudspeaker or a public address system shall not be used at night (between 10.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m. except) in closed premises for communication within, e.g. auditorial, conference rooms, community halls and banquet halls.

6. Consequences of any violation in silence zone/area-

Whoever, in any place, covered under the silence zone/area commits any of the following offences, he shall be liable for penalty under the provisions of the Act-

(a) between the hours of nine in the evening and eight in the following morning for any purpose'

(b) at any other time, for the purpose of advertising any entertainment, trade or business;

(c) if the loudspeaker forms part of a public telephone system;

(d) if the loudspeaker:-

(i) is in or fixed to a vehicle and

(ii) is operated solely for the entertainment of or for communicating with the driver or a passenger of the vehicle or, where the loudspeaker is or forms part of the horn or similar warning instrument of the vehicle, solely for giving warning to other traffic, and

(iii) is so operated a not to give reasonable cause for annoyance to persons in the vicinity;

(e) otherwise than on a highway, by persons employed in connection with a transport undertaking used by the public in a case where the loudspeaker is operated solely for making announcements to passengers or prospective passengers or to other persons to be employed;

(f) by a traveling showman or land which is being used for the purposes of a pleasure fair;

(g) in case of emergency.

Clause (b) of sub-section (1) of Section 62 does not apply to the operation of a loudspeaker between the hours of noon and seven in the evening on the same day of the loudspeaker-

13. The one thing that can conceivably cover a ban on noise by loudspeakers can of course, be decency, but the difficulty, again, is that the word decency being itself undefined, public shall have to wait until some verdict of the higher judiciary might declare noise as contrary to decency.

A bye-law of a Municipality requiring permission for using a loudspeaker does not infringe Article 19(1)(a). The State can regulate the use of loudspeakers and mechanical or other contrivances to simplify sound, and does not amount to an infringement of the right under Article 19(1)(a).