Delhi High Court to hear plea against ban on fire-crackers in national capital

NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court will on Wednesday hear the petition challenging the ban of firecrackers in the national capital. The high court will hear the petition seeking a modification in the Delhi government's decision to impose a complete ban on storage, sale and bursting of all types of fire-crackers during the upcoming festival of Diwali.

The petition in Delhi High Court has been filed on behalf of Rahul Sanwaria and Tanveer. In their petition, the petitioner had demanded the Delhi government to amend their decision.

The petition said that it is not appropriate to ban firecrackers in an arbitrary manner one and a half months before Diwali.

The petitioner says that the Delhi government’s decision is very arbitrary. The petition states that the National Clean Air Program has issued a report on the issue of pollution.

According to the report, the bursting of crackers is not the biggest cause of air pollution in Delhi-NCR.

Delhi government had recently announced a “complete ban” on the sale, use and storage of firecrackers in the Capital this Diwali. This pre-emptive ban was imposed in view of the city’s deteriorating air quality over the past three years, said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in a series of tweets.

Last year, the Delhi government faced heavy criticism from fire-cracker traders in the city for imposing the ban just days ahead of Diwali, when licences had been procured and crackers had already been stocked up for sale, resulting in losses for traders. The government had imposed a complete ban on the sale and use of crackers, including the green variant in November last year.