The Delhi High Court will hear on October 7, a petition seeking amendment in the Delhi government’s decision to ban firecrackers in the national capital.
The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) had issued an order on September 14, putting a complete ban on manufacturing, storage, selling (including delivery through online marketing platforms) and bursting of all kinds of firecrackers up to January 1, next year.
Hearing the plea, Justice Yashwant Varma directed the petitioner to find out whether a similar case was pending in the Supreme Court and if yes, what was the scope of that petition.
Filed by Rahul Sanwaria and Tanveer in the High Court, the plea stated that it was not appropriate of the Delhi government to ban firecrackers in an arbitrary manner, just one-and-a-half months before the festival of Deepawali.
The petitioners further said that it was completely unfair and arbitrary on part of the government to ban firecrackers, without any government data or verdict to support the same.
They said the National Clean Air Programme had issued a report on pollution, which revealed that bursting of crackers was not the biggest cause of air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region.
Accepting the fact that all types of firecrackers were not good for the environment, the petitioners said that it was also wrong to completely ban them.
The petition further said that the directions given by DPCC were contrary to judicial orders as even the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had permitted the sale and use of crackers in areas where air quality fell under the moderate levels.
The plea noted that the air quality of the national capital has remained moderate since August 15, 2022. It added that in this view, there was no occasion to impose a ban on the use of at least green crackers.
The petitioners contended that even the Supreme Court had set aside the orders passed by the High Courts of Telangana and Calcutta, which imposed a blanket ban on sale of all firecrackers.
They said the Delhi Police had issued an advertisement for grant of temporary fireworks licenses earlier this month and relying on this advertisement as well as the court orders passed from time to time, the petitioners, along with other sellers, stocked up green firecrackers.