Plea for urgent intervention, Supreme Court hearing on November 10

Pointing out that even healthy people were having breathing issues, Jha pointed out that the Air Quality Index had crossed 500 in Delhi. He said that in the last two-three years, the AQI had not crossed 500 in Delhi.

“Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP-4) is already here. Noida has already closed its schools. This requires urgent intervention of this court. AQI levels have reached a level where even those who are fit are not able to reside in Delhi anymore,” he said.

The bench then asked the counsel, “What do we do to arrest that?”

Jha pointed out that the situation is worsening due to parali (stubble) burning in Punjab.

CJI Lalit said, “Some of the experts on the point say it has nothing to do with that.”

Jha said, “When I compared the AQI levels of the last one week, it showed rise due to the high level of parali burning in Punjab.”

Stating that fires had risen by 21 per cent in Punjab, he urged the court to seek answers from state officials.

He said the matter is urgent. “Currently, the situation is so bad that I had to file it urgently.” He pointed to the GRAP Stage 4 being issued in Delhi-NCR.
He said it involved the right to life of people at large, especially of the children and aged. He urged the court to hear it today or tomorrow. The CJI said the court will take it up on November 10.

In his plea, Jha said, “Stubble burning in the neighbouring states of Delhi NCR continues… The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has stated that on 01.11.2022, 2,109 fire incidents due to stubble burning were recorded, out of which Punjab had recorded 1,842 incidents, Haryana recorded 88 incidents…”

He said “despite the clear orders of” the court, the states did not take necessary steps to ensure complete ban on stubble burning.

The plea referred to reports and stated “stubble burning and farm fires from September 15 to October 31 have increased by 21% this year in Punjab shows reason for Delhi choking more this year”.

Jha said the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), released by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) in June this year, stated that residents of Delhi stand to lose 10 years due to air pollution.

The petition stated that according to Gufran Beig, founder project director, SAFAR, a forecasting agency under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, “the share of stubble burning in Delhi’s pollution has increased to around 38 cent”.

Jha also urged the court to appoint a “high-level committee under the chairmanship of a retired Supreme Court judge to tackle the air pollution crisis due to stubble burning”.