PRAYAGRAJ, Feb. 12 -- The Allahabad high court has dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking removal of loudspeakers from the Mahakumbh mela on the ground that the petition "lacked data to indicate that the public address system was causing noise pollution above the permissible limits".

"Such a laconic petition cannot be countenanced," the court observed while dismissing the PIL petition.

The petitioners---Brahmachari Dayanand and another---approached the high court claiming that while they were campaigning in Sector 18 of the Mahakumbh, the camps around them were using loudspeakers (public address systems) and LCDs which caused noise pollution. The petitioners claimed that such noise pollution caused hindrance in th...