NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi upheld the ban imposed by the Madras High Court on the sale of Ganesh idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) in Tamil Nadu.
“You can manufacture anything out of natural clay,” a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud said as it dismissed a plea filed by a Ganesh idol artisan challenging the order passed by Madras HC in a special sitting on Sunday.
A division bench of the HC on Sunday had stayed the order passed by a single judge of allowing the sale of PoP idols. “Though the Central Pollution Control Board, as well as the State Pollution Control Board, are bound to follow the directions of Government, there is no direction by the Central or State Governments permitting the manufacture of idols using Plaster of Paris. In that view of the matter, this Court is unable to find force in the argument of the learned Senior Counsel by referring to Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986,” a bench of Justices SS Sundar and D Bharatha Chakravarty said.
Although the plea was not listed for hearing, but the bench also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra agreed to consider the same on Monday.
“The judgement has been passed by the division bench of Madurai HC. It’s with regard to the sale of Ganesh idols. The single judge has said immersion can't be allowed and with regards to that, the prohibition is there. The division bench has stayed that. The net result is that I can’t even sell my idols,” Divan told the bench.
Considering Senior Counsel’s submission, the bench however agreed to consider it on Monday after concluding the matters listed for the day but said, “What will people do if they can’t immerse it (idols)?”