'Shocked': SC Slams Gurugram Landfill Fire, Seeks CAQM Action

While expressing shock over the recent landfill fire in Gurugram’s Bandhwari, the Supreme Court of India on Friday said that such fires pose a serious health hazard and directed the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to issue directions in order to avoid such fires across the NCR region.

“We were SHOCKED to see the video. We can see the extent of pollution," a bench led by Justice Abhay S. Oka said while hearing the M.C. Mehta case pertaining to air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region.

At the outset, Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the Court as amicus curiae in the case, told the court that the fire began on April 26 and went on to rage for almost four days.

Singh told the Court that the Bandhwari landfill site holds 13 lakh metric tons of waste, of which approximately 9 lakh metric tons is legacy waste, which refers to accumulated, untreated solid waste that has built up over time.

Noting the seriousness of the incident, the court said that even though the fire had been extinguished, the smoke caused by it remains."

The bench, also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, accordingly directed the Gurugram Municipal Commissioner (GMC) to file an affidavit by May 15, asking him to specify the outer limit for clearing the legacy waste.

 During the hearing, Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh stressed that similar incidents are taking place all over the NCR region. The court, therefore, asked the CAQM to issue directions under Section 12 of the CAQM Act in order to prevent such fire incidents. Notably,

Notably, Section 12 of the CAQM Act, 2021, empowers the Commission to issue binding directions to any authority for controlling air pollution.

Additionally, the Court referred to the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, and said that local authorities must clear legacy waste.

Case Title: M.C. Mehta v Union of India

(With inputs from Hindustan Times)