Supreme Court asks centre to come up with measures immediately to curb air pollution in Delhi

A Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant today asked the central government to implement immediate measures to curb pollution in the Delhi NCR area.

When the hearing began, the bench made it clear that they are not inclined in hearing of the lengthy affidavits and reports but of the measurer taken to curb pollution immediately. The CJI remarked that the situation is so bad that people are constrained to wear masks inside homes.

Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India (SG), appearing for the centre sought for permission from the court to share screen and explain from a short note about the measures taken by the government. SG explained that the increase in pollution maybe attributed to the spurt of stubble burning especially from Punjab, he further said government has made available 2 lakh machines to the farmers to ensure that they process the stubble and make it available as cattle feed.

The CJI at this point asked the SG if he is implying that the increase in pollution is due to stubble burning by farmers and asked if they have identified other causes of the pollution. SG informed the court that he did not mean to imply that. The CJI told the SG that the question is how to control the situation in 2 days and asked him to apprise the court of the short term plan of the government.

Justice Chandrachud questioned the SG about how the government is incentivising the farmers to buy these machines. Justice Surya Kant also asked the SG as to how poor farmers can afford these machines. The SG replied to this stating that the government is subsidising these machines by almost 80% and that these machines have been made available to the farmers through co-operative societies and that marginal farmers can get these machines free of cost further revealing the capital cost of the machines.

The Chief Justice of India while agreeing that some percentage of the pollution is from stubble burning asked the SG about the other factors that contribute to the pollution, more specifically vehicular pollution. The CJI further asked how they planned to bring the pollution in short term and also suggested the government impose a 2 day lockdown to bring it down.

The Solicitor General informed the court that a meeting has been scheduled today between the authorities at the Central Government and Chief Secretaries of the States of Punjab and Haryana to address the issues immediately.

The court on hearing these submissions adjourned the matter to Monday and asked the centre to inform them about the immediate measures taken to curb air pollution in Delhi on Monday.

A 17 year old college student Aditya Dubey had in 2020 filed a Public Interest Litigation regarding alarming levels of air pollution in Delhi. The case was listed today in view of an application filed by the petitioners asking the court to pass appropriate orders in the light of excessive levels of air pollution in Delhi at present.

The case will now be heard on 15th of November.

Case title: Aditya Dubey Vs Union of India