Calling the pollution control boards of Delhi-NCR “ineffective” due to staff shortage, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the body responsible for air quality management in the national capital and adjoining areas to explain how it proposes to tackle pollution and stubble burning which would spike with the onset of winter.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih directed the Chairperson of the Commission of Air Quality Management (CAQM) in the National Capital Region and adjoining areas to remain present virtually during the hearing of the matter.

“Today, the situation is that there are large number of vacant posts in the state pollution control boards rendering them ineffective…We therefore call upon the chairman of CAQM to remain present through video conferencing on the next date of hearing and explain what steps does the commission propose to take,” the bench said.

The bench also wondered how the sub-committee on safeguarding and enforcement to be constituted by the CAQM will function due to lack of representation from the state pollution control boards of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh due to the vacancies. It directed the five NCR states to fill the vacant posts urgently, preferably before April 30, 2025.

The bench also directed the CAQM chairperson to file an affidavit explaining the steps the commission proposes to take to check the air pollution menace, often attributed to burning of paddy straw on farms in the states adjoining the national capital, and posted the matter for further hearing on September 2.       

During the hearing, senior advocate Aprajita Singh, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, informed the bench about a large number of vacancies in all state pollution control boards of the Delhi-NCR region. She said under the CAQM Act of 2021, the commission is mandated to take steps to curb pollution in the region and to form sub-committees comprising representatives from the states in Delhi-NCR for enforcement of its directives.

“We are almost in September and soon problems of stubble burning and pollution will crop up due to non-functional state pollution boards. Due to huge vacancies, it would be difficult to enforce the directives issued by CAQM,” Singh submitted.

The bench deplored the “sorry state of affairs” at pollution control boards which are statutory bodies. Counsel appearing for Rajasthan said 395 of the 808 sanctioned posts in the the state pollution control board are vacant.

“Out of the 395 posts, we will be filling 115 posts in the next two months for which the process is on. The rest of the posts are to be filled through promotions and it will take some time,” he said.The court voiced its displeasure over a large number of posts being vacant and warned it will summon the chairperson of the state pollution board if the vacancies were not filled expeditiously.

Counsel for the Delhi government submitted that out of the 344 sanctioned posts in the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), as many as 233 are vacant. The bench noted the “sad state of affairs” in the capital city and asked the Delhi government to fill these vacancies by April 30, 2025.  It noted that out of the 652 sanctioned posts in Punjab, 314 are vacant, and directed the state government to fill all the vacancies by April 30, 2025.

It issued identical an order for Haryana, where 202 of the 483 sanctioned posts are vacant. In the case of Uttar Pradesh, the bench was informed that around 350 posts are vacant in the state pollution control board and efforts are on to fill them.