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SC moves to make festivals less noisy
Why is it in news?
- The Supreme Court struck a balance between the interests of the firecracker industry and the right to public health.
- It allowws 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 held that only green or improved crackers would be used during religious festivals and other occasions, including weddings.
Applicable nationwide
- 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 just half-an-hour, between 11.55 p.m. and half-past midnight.
- The reduced time window is applicable across the country.
- 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.
Licensed traders
- The court banned the manufacture, sale and use of joined firecrackers (series crackers or ‘laris’), holding that they caused huge air, noise and solid waste problems.
- The sale of green and improved crackers would be only through licensed traders.
- It banned online sale through e-commerce websites, including Flipkart and Amazon.
- Any such e-commerce company found selling crackers online will be hauled up for contempt of court, and the court may also pass, in that eventuality, orders of monetary penalties, it warned.
- The court said the “balanced approach” taken now was only a preliminary step.
Source
The Hindu