From making a progressive point in September on the national right to pollution-free air—questioning why a judicial fiat on a blanket firecracker ban was confined to the National Capital Region—the Supreme Court has now changed tack.
It has lifted the interim curbs and allowed the regulated sale of ‘green crackers’ in Delhi for Diwali.
The top court cited empirical evidence showing no improvement in NCR’s air quality index despite the earlier judicial restrictions.
So, those in and around the capital can brace for another variation of the annual health bomb.
As the young and the highspirited celebrate, a lethal cocktail of cracker smoke and dense fog lingers for hours, making life especially harsh for the elderly and those with respiratory ailments.
Green crackers may emit 20-30 percent less particulate matter, but they remain toxic nonetheless.
Firecrackers stand at the fraught intersection of the right to celebrate and the right to life—for citizens as well as for the industry that sustains lakhs of livelihoods.
Yet, excess is always harmful. Regulatory attempts have become an annual ritual at the Supreme Court, only to fizzle out for want of political will in enforcement.
A 2018 verdict had fixed time slots for bursting green crackers during festivals; the government sought to relax even that, but the present bench chose to go by the earlier order while granting its green light.
Another yearly ‘ritual’ is the court’s wrestle with the equally complex issue of crop-stubble burning.
Only weeks ago, it suggested prosecuting farmers indulging in the practice—a politically unenforceable diktat that reflects judicial exasperation more than remedy.
Air pollution claims over two million lives in India each year. Court orders alone cannot clean the air; what is needed is sustained awareness and collective ownership of the problem.
One way to reach those who view cracker-bursting as a religious right could be to convene a dharma sansad to deliberate on the issue. Real change must arise from within society—imposition from above will only backfire.