Why cracker ban only in elite Delhi, why not across India, protect industry workers: CJI

Hearing an application by a group of Haryana firecracker manufacturers seeking modification of the Supreme Court’s April 3, 2025 order completely banning the manufacturing, storage, sale and use of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR, CJI Gavai, heading a bench also comprising Justice Vinod Chandran, said,  “If citizens in NCR are entitled to pollution-free air, why not citizens in the rest of the country? Just because this is the capital city or the Supreme Court is situated in this area, it should have pollution-free air, but not the other citizens of the country.”

Explaining the rationale behind the ban, Senior Advocate Aparajitha Singh, assisting the court as amicus curiae in the matter, said that in winters, the situation in Delhi is such that people literally choke.

The CJI said, “Last winter, I was in Amritsar on Gurpurab day, and I was told that the pollution in Amritsar was higher than in Delhi.”

Singh said it is a national problem. The CJI said if it is indeed a national problem, the response also has to be national. “Therefore, whatever policy has to be there, it has to be on a pan-India basis. We can’t have special treatment for Delhi because the people of Delhi are elite citizens of this country.”

Singh said, “There is this misunderstanding that air pollution affects the elite. The elite will take care of themselves. Deepawali, half of Delhi, goes outside. And they have air purifiers. But it’s the people on the street, the labourers who don’t have a choice… The poor and the impoverished.”

The CJI said, “Therefore, we are saying that there has to be the same policy throughout the country. There can’t be a separate policy (for Delhi). If firecrackers are going to be banned, let them be banned throughout the country.”

“It’s also the poor who are dependent upon this industry. They have also to be looked into.”

The CJI said that when the court puts a ban on construction activities to combat air pollution, it is the workers who suffer. Singh, however, said that they are compensated by the state.

Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati pointed out that the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) has been working on green crackers. She said the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) will submit a report on the matter in consultation with NEERI.

The bench said it will wait for the report: “Let the report come. We will examine.”

Appearing for the firecracker manufacturers, Senior Advocate K Parameshwar said that because of the complete ban, authorities have started to revoke all licences.

“We had licences up to 2028, 2030… It’s a tedious process to get an explosives licence. If you start cancelling all those licences,” he said.

The bench asked the authorities to maintain the status quo “as on today.”