The Supreme Court today (October 30, 2018) modified its judgment fixing a slot of 8 PM to 10 PM for bursting firecrackers on Diwali and asked the State governments to fix a timing but stuck to its earlier restriction of allowing bursting of firecrackers only for 2 hours in a day.
A Bench comprising of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan also observed that the direction for permitting the use of green crackers was meant for the Delhi-NCR region and was not pan India.
On October 23, 2018, in the case of Arjun Gopal and Others v. Union of India and Others, the apex court had ruled against imposing a complete ban on the sale of firecrackers and said that only less polluting green crackers can be sold, that too only through licensed traders. Moreover, the court had also set the duration for the bursting of crackers from 8 PM to 10 PM.
The Bench was hearing several applications filed by the Tamil Nadu government and firecracker manufactures seeking modification and clarification of the judgment.
In the application filed by the Tamil Nadu government on October 29, 2018, the state urged the court to allow firecrackers to be burst on Diwali morning in accordance with religious practices in the State.
