Section 370: Making a public nuisance by noise
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดส่งเสียง ทำให้เกิดเสียงหรือกระทำความอื้ออึง โดยไม่มีเหตุอันสมควร จนทำให้ประชาชนตกใจหรือเดือดร้อน ต้องระวางโทษปรับไม่เกินหนึ่งพันบาท หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๖ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๒) พ.ศ. ๒๕๕๘]
English translation
Whoever makes a noise, causes a noise, or creates a disturbance without reasonable cause, so as to alarm or annoy the public, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand baht.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
The elements are (1) making a sound, causing a sound, or creating a clamour, (2) without reasonable cause, and (3) causing annoyance and disturbance to the public. The requirement of an absence of reasonable cause distinguishes ordinary and lawful noise, such as permitted works or events, from a punishable nuisance, and the disturbance must affect the public rather than a single private person. Carrying the lowest fine in this Title, it is the general public-nuisance-by-noise provision and sits among the petty offences protecting public order and comfort.
Why this matters in practice
With a maximum fine of 1,000 baht this is among the lightest offences in the Code, and it typically features in disputes over parties, loudspeakers, bars, construction and roadside commerce. The central defence is reasonable cause, for example a licensed event or works within permitted hours, or that the noise did not in fact disturb the public at large. In practice complaints are often resolved administratively or by warning; the value of the section is as a baseline public-order tool rather than a source of significant penalty exposure.
Cited in 4 Supreme Court decisions (1976 to 2024)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 6046-6048/2567 (2024)
- Decision 347/2519 (1976)
- Decision 256/2553 (2010)
- Decision 1831/2529 (1986)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
Is making loud noise a crime in Thailand?
Under Section 370 making noise or a clamour without reasonable cause so as to disturb the public is a petty offence, punishable by a fine of up to 1,000 baht.
What if the noise came from a licensed event?
Reasonable cause, such as a licensed event or works within permitted hours, is a defence, since the offence requires the noise to be without reasonable cause.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 370 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 370. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-370/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 370 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-370/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-370/"><p>Whoever makes a noise, causes a noise, or creates a disturbance without reasonable cause, so as to alarm or annoy the public, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand baht.</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 370 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-370/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.