Court caseAIR 1982 All 285

The defendant set up a brick-grinding machine adjoining the premises of the plaintiff, a doctor, who used them as his clinic. The machine produced a large quantity of fine red brick dust, which polluted the atmosphere, entered the plaintiff's consulting room and caused physical inconvenience to him and to his patients, affecting their health. The plaintiff sued for an injunction against running the machine. The defendant contended that he was carrying on a lawful business on his own land and that the plaintiff could not complain of its ordinary incidents.

The Allahabad High Court held that the dust created by the brick-grinding machine was an actionable private nuisance. When sufficient dust is discharged from a defendant's premises into the plaintiff's so as to cause substantial physical discomfort and injury to health, it is a material interference with the ordinary comfort of the occupier according to the standards of ordinary people, and it is no defence that the defendant's business is lawful. The plaintiff, a medical practitioner whose clinic and patients were affected, was entitled to protection, and a permanent injunction was granted restraining the defendant from running the machine there.