Supreme Court's Diwali dhamaka: Orders only 'green crackers' for Delhi-NCR
The Supreme Court today clarified that firecrackers other than green crackers will not be sold in the Delhi-NCR region this Diwali and other festivals. A bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said firecrackers already produced can be sold in this festival season only in other parts of the country. The judgment comes just a week before the popular festival of lights.
Community bursting of firecrackers allowed only for two hours: SC
Citing examples of southern states like Tamil Nadu, Puducherry where firecrackers can be burst from 4-5 am and from 9-10pm during festivals, the SC said its direction on community bursting of firecrackers will apply pan India for two hours. In its October 23 order, the top court had ordered that bursting of firecrackers on Diwali and other festivals would be only from 8-10 pm.
SC bans sale of firecrackers through e-commerce websites
The court in its order had also banned the sale of firecrackers through e-commerce websites and said today the direction will also apply pan India. It had said e-commerce websites will be pulled for contempt of court if they didn't follow the direction, adding that the Station House Officers of police stations will be held liable if banned firecrackers are sold in their area.
Firecracker manufacturers feel order similar to complete ban of firecrackers
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 finalized. In such a scenario, it'd be akin to complete ban on firecrackers as green crackers would possibly come only next year.
Court didn't put complete ban, said balance was required
Advocate Gopal Shankarnarayanan, appearing for the petitioner on whose plea the Oct-23 order was passed, told the court that it had stopped short of imposing a complete ban on the use of firecrackers and had said the balance has to be achieved. He referred to the SC's last year's order and said that therefore, no firecrackers could have been brought in Delhi after that.
Last year, SC temporarily banned firecracker sale as an experiment
On October 9, 2017, the SC had temporarily banned the firecracker-sale ahead of Diwali. Later, it 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. The court said its order was an experiment to examine its effect on pollution levels in the region.
