The Supreme Court on Friday observed that a policy to curb pollution cannot exist just for Delhi, just because they are the elite citizens of the country. The apex court said this while hearing a plea against its April 3 order that banned the sale, storage, transportation and manufacture of firecrackers in the Delhi-NCR region. The top court also issued a notice to CAQM on a petition against a total ban on firecrackers in Delhi-NCR and sought a reply within two weeks.
Policy to curb pollution should be at pan-India level: CJI
During the hearing of the matter, Chief Justice BR Gavai said if the cities of NCR have the right to clean air, then why don't the people of other cities? "Whatever policy is there, it should be at the pan-India level. We cannot make a policy only for Delhi just because they are the elite class of the country," he stated.
He further said that he went to Amritsar last winter and the pollution there was worse than Delhi. "If firecrackers are to be banned, then it should be in the whole country," the Chief Justice said.
Elite class takes care of itself: Aparajita Singh
In the Supreme Court, senior advocate Aparajita Singh, the amicus curiae in the Delhi pollution case, said that the elite class takes care of itself, and whenever there is pollution, they move out of Delhi.
The apex court bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said in April that a large section of the population worked on streets and was the worst affected by pollution, and not everybody can afford an air purifier at their residence or place of work to fight pollution.
Several orders passed by SC in the last six months
The top court bench also said that several orders passed by this court during the last six months bring on the record the horrible situation which prevailed in Delhi due to very high levels of air pollution. "Right to health is an essential part of Article 21 of the Constitution, and so is the right to live in a pollution-free atmosphere," the top court said.
The Supreme Court bench stated that unless the court was satisfied that the pollution due to the "so-called" green crackers was the bare minimum, there was no question of reconsidering the previous orders.
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