SC refuses to modify firecrackers order for Delhi-NCR, says products already manufactured can be sold in other regions

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to modify its order on firecrackers for the Delhi-National Capital Region, saying that only green crackers will be sold in this territory . The top court also asserted that polluting firecrackers that have already been manufactured will not be allowed to be sold in Delhi-NCR. [caption id=“attachment_5478391” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of the Supreme Court of India. AP[/caption] A bench of justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said firecrackers already produced can be sold this festival season only in other parts of the country. It said its direction on community bursting of firecrackers will apply pan India for two hour, as well its order on the ban on the sale of firecrackers through e-commerce websites. In Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and other southern states, firecrackers can be burst from 4 am to 5 am and from 9 pm to 10 pm during festivals, the Supreme Court said. On 23 October, the court had  put in place guidelines to regulate the sale of firecrackers and also directed that crackers should only be burst between 8 pm and 10 pm. The bench had said that there would be no blanket ban on the sale and use of firecrackers. Following this order, the Tamil Nadu government filed a petition , urging the court to allow people in the state to burst firecrackers on the morning of Diwali in addition to the 8 pm to 10 pm permitted window. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused this request , but modified its earlier order, giving the Tamil Nadu government the authority to decide on the two-hour duration during which firecrackers can be burst in the state, instead of sticking to the 8 pm to 10 pm period the Supreme Court had stipulated for the country. In the previous hearing, the advocates appearing for firecracker manufacturers had told the bench that the apex court had never intended to order a complete ban on the bursting of firecrackers on Diwali, but the composition of green crackers was not even finalised. They had said that in such a scenario, it would be akin to complete ban on firecrackers as green crackers would possibly come in the market only next year. They had also said that a lot of changes were required to be made in the quality of crackers to make them green and it was impossible to do so within such a short span of time this year. Advocate Gopal Shankarnarayanan, appearing for the petitioner on whose plea the October 23 order was passed, had told the court that it had stopped short of imposing a complete ban on use of firecrackers and had said that balance has to be achieved. He had referred to last year’s order of the apex court and said that as per the direction, no firecrackers could have been brought in Delhi after that order. The counsel appearing for the manufacturers had said that they were not at all arguing that the order passed by the apex court was wrong, but they could not comply with the directions in the window given to them. On October 9 last year, the top court had temporarily banned the sale of firecrackers ahead of Diwali. Later, the court refused to relax its order while dismissing a plea by traders who had sought permission to sell crackers for at least a day or two before Diwali on October 19, 2017. The apex court said its ban order during Diwali that year was an experiment to examine its effect on pollution levels in the region.   With inputs from PTI