The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to relax its earlier decision banning the manufacture, storage and sale of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR.
A two-judge bench of the apex court comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said that a large section of the population worked on the streets and due to the higher levels of pollution, their health was the worst affected.
Firecracker companies had moved the top court seeking modification of the ban in Delhi-NCR.
During the course of the hearing, the amicus curiae (friend of the court) Aparajita Singh told the apex court that the MOEF (Ministry of Environment and Forests) has cited a NEERI report that there is a 30% reduction in particulate matter.
She elaborated that the elite class have air purifiers but those who live in slums and shanties don't have such devices. Children and elderly are also affected.
Hearing these submission from Singh, the court observed that not everybody can afford an air purifier at their residence or place of work to fight pollution.
The court said if the NEERI report indicates that firecrackers cause pollution, then that is the end of the matter.
The top court was hearing the MC Mehta case with regard to air pollution in the Delhi NCR region emanating from various sources including firecrackers, stubble burning, waste burning, vehicular emissions, industrial pollution and others.
Earlier, in one of its hearings, the top court expressed its dissatisfaction over the way the Delhi government and other authorities failed in their duty to take effective steps to control the pollution levels. It sought to know the measures undertaken by the Delhi government and the Delhi police in implementing the ban and the action taken against the alleged violators.
"We want the Delhi government to immediately respond as to why this has happened. We will simultaneously issue notice to Delhi Police Commissioner as to why there is non-compliance. We have to hear this immediately. The real problem is that this is all under the Air Prevention Act, 1981, which after amendment this year, has only penalty provisions," the apex court's two-judge bench comprising Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih said.
"The Delhi government and other authorities must also take a call on a perpetual ban of these firecrackers," the court had added in its order.