SC Moves To Make Festivals Less Noisy

Bench fixes time slots while imposing a ban on loud and toxic firecrackers.

- Krishnadas Rajagopal

The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck a balance between the interests of the firecracker industry and the right to public health, allowing the manufacture and sale of only "green" and reduced-emission or "improved" crackers, while banning those that are loud and toxic to man, animal and the environment.

A Bench of Justices A.K. Sikh and Ashok Bhushan held that only green or improved crackers would be used during religious festivals and other occasions, including weddings.

In nationwide curbs, the judgment reduced the time for bursting crackers during Deepavali and other festivals to two hours: between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. For Christmas and New Year, the time slot allowed is half an hour, between 11.55 p.m. and half-past midnight.

The ban came on the basis of a petition filed by two infants — a six-month-old and 14-month-old — through their fathers in 2015. They said the air pollution caused by various factors, especially firecrackers, made Delhi a gas chamber. They pleaded for their right to life.