New Delhi: Taking a serious note of the deteriorating air quality in the National Capital Region, the Supreme Court on Monday slapped a ban on the sale of crackers for this Diwali and asked the government to suspend all temporary licences granted for sale of crackers.
A three-judge bench of Justices A.K. Sikri, A.M. Sapre and Ashok Bhushan restored the ban imposed on November 11, 2016 after Diwali last year.
Following petitions from manufacturers and selling agents, the court lifted the ban on September 12 and allowed sale of crackers for this year. The ban has now been restored.
The court suspended all such licenses as permit sale of fireworks, wholesale and retail within the territory of NCR.
The suspension shall remain in force till further orders of this Court. No such licenses shall be granted or renewed till further orders.
The Bench said that the September 12 order temporarily lifting the stay and permitting sale of firecrackers would be effective from November 1 and only licensed shops will be allowed to do business.
Diwali is on October 19 and the order effectively means that no firecrackers will be available for purchase before the festival.
Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who effectively argued for restoring the ban, told this newspaper that the ban on sale would include even online sale. This would mean that nobody would get crackers online from a manufacturer or a dealer from Sivakasi, as he said the Explosive Rules prohibit such sale.
The dealer who gets licence to sell in Tamil Nadu would not have any licence to sell crackers in Delhi either directly or indirectly as all licences are suspended and sale banned forthwith, he said.
In its order the Bench pointed out that as the ban was imposed last year after Diwali, the NCR did not have the benefit to test air quality without bursting of crackers.
The order said, “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.”
The bench judges said as far as adverse effects of burning of crackers during Diwali are concerned, those have been witnessed year after year. The air quality deteriorates abysmally and alarmingly and the city chokes.
