{"id":204104,"date":"2018-10-23T18:01:44","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T12:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=204104"},"modified":"2018-10-29T18:19:31","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T12:49:31","slug":"only-green-fireworks-permitted-to-be-manufactured-and-sold-sc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2018\/10\/23\/only-green-fireworks-permitted-to-be-manufactured-and-sold-sc\/","title":{"rendered":"Only “green” fireworks permitted to be manufactured and sold: SC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court:<\/strong> The 2- Judge Bench comprising of A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, JJ., gave directions to be followed for burning of crackers while refusing the complete ban on the sale of firecrackers as it may lead to \u201cextreme economic hardships\u201d <\/strong>(observing without conclusively holding) and further stating that there have been lots of efforts for production of firecrackers which do not contain harmful chemicals and thereby not causing air pollution, which are even termed as \u2018Green Crackers\u2019.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The present petition was filed by next friends of three infants concerning the health of the children as due to the alarming degradation of the air quality, leading to severe air pollution in the city of Delhi, the petitioners may encounter various health hazards. Children are much more vulnerable to air pollutants as exposure thereto may affect them in various ways. Further, they have submitted that air pollution hits its nadir <\/em>during Diwali<\/em> time because of indiscriminate use of firecrackers.<\/p>\n

In light of the above submissions, the petitioners have prayed for directions to the official respondents to take possible measures for checking the pollution by sticking at the causes of the pollution.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court on duly considering the submissions of the parties and taking note of the reports based on earlier orders of the Supreme Court concerning the same issue, stated that bursting of firecrackers during Diwali <\/em>is not the only reason for deterioration of air quality, the other reasons which contribute to the issue are unregulated construction activity<\/strong> and crop burning. <\/strong>Further, the Court stated that \u201cour endeavor is to strive at balancing of two rights, namely, right of the petitioners under Article 21 and right of the manufacturers and traders under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India.<\/p>\n

Respondent 1, on the direction of Apex Court\u2019s earlier order, filed an affidavit in consultation with various ministries to deal with the problems and issues as stated above, which have been accepted by the Supreme Court and further direction has been given for the implementation of the same. The directions given by the Court have been stated below in a succinct manner:<\/p>\n