Supreme Court Bans Sale Of Firecrackers This Diwali In Delhi-NCR
Days from Diwali, the apex court banned sales of firecrackers in Delhi NCR.
The Supreme Court of India today banned the sale of fire crackers in Delhi NCR ahead of the upcoming festival of Diwali.
In doing so, a bench headed by justice AK Sikri reimposed its earlier order of November 2016 that had suspended the sale of firecrackers.
‘’We have the direct evidence of deterioration of air quality at alarming levels, which happens every year. As already pointed out above, burning of these fire crackers during Diwali in 2016 had shot up pm levels by three times, making Delhi the worst city in the world, insofar as air pollution is concerned. Direct and immediate cause thereof was burning of crackers during Diwali.’’, the judgement said.
The apex court in its order also allowed the sale of fire crackers with certain restrictions but said that this will come into effect from November 1. With Diwali on October 19, the order effectively means that no firecrackers will be available for purchase before the festival.
We are of the view that the order suspending the licences should be given one chance to test itself in order to find out as to whether there would be positive effect of this suspension, particularly during Diwali period.Supreme Court Judgement
The court had banned all fire crackers sale in the region in November last year. The Supreme Court’s judgement of today also makes reference to that order.
The air quality deteriorates abysmally and alarmingly and the city chokes thereby. It leads to closing the schools and the authorities are compelled to take various measures on emergent basis, when faced with “health emergency” situation. This very situation had occurred on the very next morning after Diwali in the year 2016. It resulted in passing the order dated November 11, 2016.Supreme Court Judgement
Thereafter, on September 12 this year, the Supreme Court modified its November 2016 order and allowed sale of fire crackers with 16 restrictions. However with today’s order, November 1 has been made the implementation date of the September order, thus making this Diwali a cracker free festival for Delhi NCR.
Watch this discussion with environmentalist and lawyer MC Mehta and Harpriya Padmanavan, Supreme Court lawyer and other one of the petitioners in the matter.