The Supreme Court today expressed concern over alleged violations of its restrictions on firecrackers in Delhi NCR after a newspaper report claimed that unlicensed firecrackers were being sold in markets. The court also directed the Centre to look into the issue.
The bench of Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice Prasanna B. Varale asked the Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to look into the alleged violations. “In today’s report, there is a photograph. They say that notwithstanding yesterday’s order, now everything is available in the (firecracker) shops. Please look into it,” Justice Sundresh said to the ASG.
Referring to the report’s account of the availability of different varieties of firecrackers, the bench further said that licensed and unlicensed crackers, with and without QR codes, were reportedly being sold in the market.
The development comes after the top court permitted the manufacture, sale and bursting of certified green firecrackers in Delhi-NCR for a limited period ahead of Diwali, while directing to restore the complete ban on firecrackers from November 9, 2026. However, it has not permitted firecrackers within 300 metres of hospitals, healthcare centres, old-age homes, educational institutions and notified silence zones, which will be marked as ‘No-Cracker Zones.’
Yesterday’s order also clarified that the relaxation is subject to stringent safeguards to ensure that conventional and unauthorised firecrackers do not enter the market under the guise of green crackers.
(With inputs from ANI)
