The Supreme Court allowed certified manufacturers to produce green firecrackers in Delhi-NCR but barred their sale in the region. The Court further added that only those authorised by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) will be permitted.
The Court has also directed the Centre to work with stakeholders and come up with a solution regarding the ban imposed on the sale and storage of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR by October 8.
Earlier this month, while addressing issues related to firecrackers, the Supreme Court had questioned why restrictions were applied selectively and remarked whether clean air is a right only for the “elite” citizens of the national capital. The Court added that such restrictions should be implemented uniformly across the country.
A bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran was hearing petitions on regulating firecrackers in the NCR on September 12.
“If cities in NCR are entitled to clean air, why not people of other cities? Whatever policy is to be implemented, it must be on a pan-India basis. We cannot have a policy just for Delhi because they are elite citizens of the country. I was in Amritsar last winter, and the pollution there was worse than in Delhi. If firecrackers are to be banned, they should be banned throughout the country,” the CJI observed.
These observations came while the Supreme Court was hearing pleas from firecracker manufacturers and citizen groups challenging its April 3, 2025 order, which upheld an earlier directive from December 19, 2024, banning the sale, manufacturing, and storage of firecrackers in Delhi and NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan.
In April, the Court stressed that a year-round ban was necessary given the alarming air quality in the region. Following the intervention, neighbouring states also implemented similar restrictions in their NCR districts.
If the prohibition is expanded on a nationwide scale, all firecrackers could effectively be outlawed. The first ban was imposed in 2017 by the National Green Tribunal, later endorsed by the Supreme Court in 2018, and has remained in force since then.
