There will be no sale of crackers in Delhi-NCR this Diwali after the Supreme Court on Monday suspended all existing licenses held by shops in the Capital and its surrounding regions to make way for denizens to breathe clean air. The ban will be in place till November 1, 2017.
The radical step, that is sure to dampen the festive spirit, was taken by a three-judge Bench on a petition filed by three children who complained about the alarming rise of pollution levels in the city around Diwali to be a major violation of their fundamental right to breathe clean air under Article 21 (right to live). As per World Health Organization (WHO) standards, Delhi is the most polluted cities in the world with air pollution 29 times above the standard level.
Snapping the supply chain, was considered by the Court to be more practical to address the menace of pollution caused by crackers instead of burning of firecrackers by individuals which is difficult to monitor and enforce, the Bench noted.
The Court was faced with two orders — one passed by it on November 11, 2016 when it ordered total suspension of cracker licenses to shops and traders in Delhi-NCR. Another was a subsequent decision on September 12, 2017 when the ban was revoked and a limited sale of crackers was permitted for 500 license holders in order to exhaust the existing stock of firecrackers lying with them.
The Bench of Justices AK Sikri, AM Sapre and Ashok Bhushan restored the November 11, 2016 order and suspended the operation of the subsequent order of September 12 till November 1. Giving reasons, the judges unanimously held, "We are of the view that the order suspending the licenses 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…This order (of November 11) prevailed during the year but the impact and effect of this order remains to be tested on Diwali days."
The petitioners' lawyer Gopal Shankaranaraynan produced a 20-year old document submitted by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) before Delhi High Court supporting ban on crackers involving sulphur due to the high levels of sulphur dioxide produced as a result. Coincidentally, the then counsel for the state was now the Supreme Court judge who passed the September 12 order. Due to this reason, the judge had to recuse causing the matter to come before Justice Sikri.
The Bench deprecated such an attempt by the petitioner to take the matter away from a particular Bench.
However, CPCB joined the petitioner's cause to reinforce the ban. Even the Bench noted there is a "health emergency" year after year the next morning after Diwali as "the air quality deteriorates abysmally and alarmingly and the city chokes thereby." An independent study revealed how last year Diwali, the particulate matter level shot up three fold, with crackers solely to be blamed. The Court found it ironical that on one hand, students are discouraged from using crackers while certain quarters resist to such ban.