Supreme Court cracks whip on sale of fake green firecrackers

New Delhi: Cracking whip on manufacturers of banned crackers including those storing and selling them camouflaged as green crackers, the Supreme Court on Friday said that any “flouting or disobedience” of its detections can’t be “tolerated” and ordered that chief secretary of state, heads of administration in Union Territory and police at all level will be personally liable for any flouting of directions issued since 2017.

Pointing to the “latent violation” of top court directions banning the manufacture of banned firecrackers, prima facie confirmed by the CBI in its report following its investigation, Justice M.R. Shah heading a bench also comprising Justice A.S. Bopanna said, “It prima facie appears that the implementing agencies of the concerned states either lack desire to implement the  directions issued by this Court or they close their eyes for whatever reasons.”

Emphasising that any lapse on the part of the state governments/State Agencies and Union Territories shall be viewed “very seriously”, the court said that it is the duty of all the States/State Agencies to ensure that the directions issued by the top court are strictly complied with in “toto”.

No authority can permit the violation of the top court directions and allow bursting of banned firecrackers under the guise of celebration, court said, “Under the guise of celebration, nobody can be permitted to infringe the right to health of the others, guaranteed under Article 21” more particularly the senior citizens and the children.

However, the court clarified that there was no total ban on use of firecrackers and only those firecrackers are banned which are injurious to the health of the citizens, more particularly the senior citizens and the children.

Having said that any “wilful and deliberate disobedience shall have to be viewed very seriously”, court directed all the states/Union Territories to give due publicity through electronic media/print media/local cable services to make the people aware and know the directions issued by it in respect of manufacture, use and sale of banned firecrackers.

Earlier in the course of the hearing, Justice Shah said that the top court orders are not taken seriously by the firecracker manufacturers and their sellers. “You go to the market, you can get joint crackers (Laries). The joint crackers burst on the roads while the procession is going on.”