Cuttack, April 4: Exactly two years after imposing a sweeping ban on processions by band parties without sound monitors, Orissa High Court has expressed serious concern over non-implementation of its direction and warned the home secretary of contempt proceedings.

A division bench comprising Justice B.P. Das and Justice M.M. Das was hearing a PIL on noise pollution due to high-decibel music by bands during processions. It had issued the ban order on April 4, 2008, while giving a free hand to the police for seizure and arrest of violators.

While fixing the permissive sound level limit at 65 decibels — both in residential and commercial areas — the court had directed the home department to provide gadgets to all police stations for enabling them to monitor pollution in their respective command areas.

It had fixed a three-month deadline for the home department to provide the gadgets to police stations in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and allowed supply of the gadgets to other police stations across the state in subsequent phases.

Notices were issued over and over again to the home secretary to submit an action-taken-report. After no response to the notices was received in the past year, the court took note of it on Friday.

Upset, the division bench came down heavily on the home secretary stating that it was high time the administration thought over the failure of governance in checking noise pollution across the state, especially in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

“We direct the home secretary to show cause why the court orders had not been implemented before we proceed with contempt of court,” the bench said while giving him time till April 16 to file the affidavit.