Crackers’ traders approach Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: Traders, who hold temporary cracker licences in the Delhi NCR region, moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday to vacate the recentlyimposed ban on cracker sales till Diwali. The ban was imposed by a three-judge bench, headed by Justice AK Sikri, on Monday.

The sudden ban took sellers and much of the city by surprise as a two-judge bench had earlier vacated a year-old ban and allowed issue of limited licences so that traders could sell their stock ahead of Diwali. Delhi police and authorities in the NCR region had begun issuing licences which was stopped after the ban was reclamped. The matter was mentioned on an urgent out-of-turn basis before a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi (who is likely to be the Chief Justice of India at a future point of time) who said that the plea would come up in due course before the bench which passed the order.

It would reassess the situation after November 1, the court said. The court justified its decision to impose the ban till October 30 ( temporary licence holders can resume operations from November 1) by saying that it was trying to gauge the impact of the cracker ban on the alarming pollution levels in the region.