On Friday, the Supreme Court allowed certified manufacturers to manufacture green firecrackers in the Delhi-NCR, but clarified that their sale and storage in the area also is not allowed. According to the court, the only manufacturers permitted to produce Green firecrackers will be manufacturers who are approved by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO). The Centre has further been instructed to consult all the stakeholders and provide a holistic solution on the sale and storage ban before October 8.
This is happening against the background of the observations that were made previously by the court on the reasons why restrictions on firecrackers were selectively applied in the Delhi-NCR. The court, headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran, said, “Since clean air is a right of the citizens of the national capital, the same should be extended to the citizens of the rest of India. Why not other cities other than NCR should be given the right to clean air? Whichever policy must exist must be pan-India. A policy cannot be reserved only for Delhi since they are the elite citizens of the country,” which CJI Gavai recalls when he went to Amritsar during severe winter time and realised his experience in extreme pollution.
The court was hearing the petitions of firecracker manufacturers and citizen groups challenging its April 3, 2025, order, which affirmed an earlier decree of December 19, 2024, prohibiting the manufacturing, sale, and storing of firecrackers in the Delhi and the NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. The bench had approved the ban throughout the year on the grounds that the air quality in the area was horrible. Subsequently, similar restrictions were also adopted on the NCR areas in neighbouring states after this ruling.
Should the ban be made a countrywide ban, it might be tantamount to the demise of firecrackers in India. Enforcement is still a problem, as evidenced in Delhi, where the illegal usage of the same is still prevalent.
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