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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court, on Friday, modified its earlier order, allowing the bursting of firecrackers between 8 pm – 10 pm instead of 7 pm – 10 pm, thereby restricting the period for bursting crackers to only two hours.

The division bench of the high court, comprising Chief Justice Devendra Upadhyaya and Justice Girish Kulkarni, was hearing a suo moto public interest litigation registered in view of the deteriorating Air Quality Index in the city of Mumbai.

The modification to the timing of bursting firecrackers was made by the high court in view of the Supreme Court’s order in Arjun Gopal vs Union of India. In the said case, the apex court had allowed the bursting of firecrackers only for 2 hours between 8 pm to 10 pm across India.

“Having regard to the direction of SC in 48.14 and 48.16 in Arjun Gopal, we modify the direction of point ‘j’ of the earlier order. The timing for firecracker shall be limited to 8 pm to 10 pm,” the bench ordered.

After Advocate General Birendra Saraf informed the bench that the Air Quality Index (AQI) had improved, the bench attributed this improvement to the recent rainfall and said "Thanks to the Rain". The reference was made to the rain in the city the previous night, which contributed to the enhancement of the AQI.

In its earlier order, the bench had also disallowed the transportation of debris from the construction site.

Today, Senior Advocate Milind Sathe, representing the BMC, informed the bench that the guidelines were being followed. Therefore, he requested the bench to vacate the earlier direction of non-transportation of debris.

However, considering the pollution levels, the division bench refused to vacate its earlier direction, stating that it would continue until the 19th of November, 2023.

While refusing to modify the direction, the bench emphasized that there are certain actions that need to be taken by the authorities.

“All that you are doing is fine and good enough. It is not a favour....You are doing your duty. Out of 1623 construction sites you visited, you have issued notice 1065. See the percentage. This itself shows the picture. We are pointing out. Everything is not as rosy as it looks. There is more that needs to be done,” the bench said.

The division bench also said that if the BMC was proactive then this situation (deteriorating AQI) would not have occurred.

“It is not this year’s problem. It was the last year when this problem happened. The BMC framed guidelines and they say they are proactive even before we took suo moto. If they were active, then the situation wouldn’t have arisen. First of all, there has to be study by the experts to be looked into the cause and measure to be taken to mitigate the pollution,” CJ Upadhyaya said.

The bench also requested Advocate General Birendra Saraf to communicate to the state government to form a statutory commission to deal with the issue of air pollution.

“See the Delhi enactment. A commission is there with wide powers. We request you to bring notice to govt and bring some statutory mechanism and leave us for adjudication purposes. This is the job of the administrator which is put on us. Advise them to have a commission. So far as the present situation you are efforts are made but more needs to be done,” the bench said.

After Senior Advocate Milind Sathe informed the bench that the BMC has set up a tab within its helpline number to enable citizens to assist the corporation in taking action on violations of guidelines, the bench directed that the emergency number be publicized in newspapers and through all other available means at the earliest. The bench also directed similar steps to be taken by all other corporations within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

Case title: High Court on its own motion.