New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday spelled out the rules and regulations of bursting crackers during Diwali. Here are the guidelines:
- You can burst only green firecrackers with reduced emission and decibel levels. These types of firecrackers will be permitted during all religious festivals.
- On Diwali, firecrackers can be burst between 8 pm and 10 pm.
- A bench of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan banned the bursting of firecrackers not conforming to the green norms that would apply throughout the year.
- These rules would be applicable to New Year celebrations and marriage festivities as well.
- The authorities would identify common community areas for the bursting of firecrackers and ensure that people are made aware of these.
- The police station chiefs would be personally responsible for ensuring the compliance of the order.
- The bench also said the area police chief would be liable for contempt of court for failure to comply.
- The court said that there would be no online sale of firecrackers. Any website found doing it would be slapped with a contempt notice.
- The court also banned stringed and joined firecrackers called ‘Laddi’.
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) counsel Vijay Panjwani described the order as a ‘balanced one’.
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However, the lawyers who were pressing for complete ban on the firecrackers said the court order would be difficult to implement for obvious practical reasons.
