Tanisha Rana
Published on: September 6, 2022 at 23:02 IST
Dexter Savio de Souza, the director of Villa Calangute Resort, attempted to have a petition dismissed by the Bombay High Court in Goa by arguing that he was not to blame for the loud music and that his guests were using the Amazon assistant “Alexa” to play music instead.
De Souza petitioned the High Court to have the Goa State Pollution Control Board’s order to show cause, which it had given to him for allegedly playing loud music from his resort, quashed.
The High Court, unsurprisingly, was not amused that, “Alexa playing the music or a guest at the resort playing the music is an unique defence, and we are certain that the Authority, which issued the show-cause notice, will address it. Primarily, however, we believe that the petitioner cannot place the burden on its visitors or, even worse, Alexa.”
“The enforcement of the noise pollution regulations will be extremely challenging if such defences are upheld”, the bench of Justices M S Sonak and R N Laddha declared.
“As it is, it might be challenging to monitor noise pollution concerns. In this situation, the show-cause notifications have been given with specific examples. Numerous complaints against the petitioner are documented. The petitioner has submitted this record with its plea”, the High Court added.
De Souza requested the quashing of the notifications in his petition, alleging that they were “false,” and that he had already sent a response in which he claimed that no loudspeaker was used and that resort visitors were playing the music through “Alexa” instead.
However, the High Court went ahead and assessed costs.
The High Court declared, “We reject this plea with costs estimated at 10,000.”