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Arjun Gopal & Others v. Union of India & Others (Delhi-NCR firecracker regulation)

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2017 INSC 1021Decided 9 Oct 2017
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 728 of 2015
Justice A.K. Sikri · Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre · Justice Ashok Bhushan

Background

This is part of the long-running Delhi-NCR air pollution writ petition. An earlier order (11 November 2016) had fully suspended licences for sale of fireworks in the NCR after Diwali 2016 pushed air pollution to around 29 times WHO limits. A later order (12 September 2017) partially relaxed that suspension to a "graded" approach, permitting sale of fireworks meeting certain safety/composition rules, while capping and reducing temporary licences. Multiple parties then filed applications seeking to pull the September order in opposite directions: the original petitioners wanted the full suspension restored, while manufacturers/licence-holders wanted even more relaxation.

Decision Breakdown

The Court dismissed the manufacturers' and licence-holders' applications (IA Nos. 92862, 95202 and 96755 of 2017) seeking further relaxation, finding no new material to justify revisiting the September 2017 order. On the petitioners' application (IA No. 96202 of 2017), the Court agreed that the September 2017 "graded approach" order should be tested properly over one full Diwali season before being relied upon, and so ordered that the licence-relaxation directions of that order would take effect only from 1 November 2017, meaning the stricter full suspension effectively remained in place for Diwali 2017, with any temporary licences already issued under the relaxed order suspended forthwith. The Court also sharply criticised an attempt by a petitioner's counsel to use the proceedings to shift the matter away from the regular bench, calling it "not a healthy practice."

Lesson Learnt

Even where a court has laid down a calibrated regulatory approach, it can pause the practical effect of that relaxation for one festival season to actually observe whether it works, before allowing it to operate, showing that environmental orders affecting public health are revisited based on real-world testing, not just fixed once and left alone.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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