Is Partial Relaxation For Certain Crackers Possible Regarding Noise Levels? Supreme Court Asks CPCB

The Supreme Court recently directed the Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to get instructions from the Central Pollution Control Board(CPCB) as to whether a partial relaxation can be made for allowing certain types of crackers. 

A bench comprising Justice MM Sundresh and Justice PB Varale directed: "Learned ASG is directed to get instructions from the Central Pollution Control Board on the query of the Court as to whether a partial relaxation with respect to certain types of crackers may be possible, with specific reference to noise."

The directions were passed in a long-standing writ petition filed by three infants highlighting the grave health hazards caused by firecrackers during Diwali. In 2016, the Supreme Court then passed a series of orders imposing a ban on conventional firecrackers and their manufacturing and selling. In 2017, it directed the CPCB and the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation to set up standards with regard to air pollution caused by firecrackers and banned certain chemicals used for making crackers. 

Subsequently, in 2018, a framework for green crackers emerged, and the Court deemed it fit to partially relax the ban with dedicated timelines for bursting crackers. In 2023, the Supreme Court refused a complete ban on sale of firecrackers and permitted green crackers for 2 hours, strictly on Diwali. It issued certain directions prescribing time on when and how the crackers can be used on other festivals. 

In 2025, a bench comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, in the MC Mehta case, imposed a year-long ban not just on the use, manufacturing and storage of firecrackers in NCR Delhi but also on green crackers. The bench relied on the Court's data that the green crackers only cause 30% less pollution than the traditional crackers. Earlier, the same bench had extended the firecrackers ban in districts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana that fall within the NCR region. 

However, several petitions were filed recalling the two-judge bench's order. It was argued that it violated the Arjun Gopal order, where the Court refused to impose a complete ban. 

Subsequent to Justice Oka's retirement, a three-judge bench comprising then Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice NV Anjaria in October 2025 relaxed the absolute ban on traditional firecrackers in NCR and allowed use of green firecrackers for Diwali, subject to certain restrictions.

The matter is listed on August 19th.

Case Details: ARJUN GOPAL & ORS v UOI &ORS

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Appearances: For Petitioner(s) Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv. Ms. Haripriya Padmanabhan, Sr. Adv. Ms. Pooja Dhar, AOR Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv. Mr. Vishal Sinha, Adv  Ms. Trisha Chandran, Adv. Mr. Ayushman Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Tushar Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Pradyut Kashyap, Adv. Mr. Joel James, Adv.

For Respondent(s) Mrs. Yugandhara Pawar Jha, AOR Mr. S. K. Verma, AOR Mr. Mohinder Jit Singh, AOR Mr. Suvidutt M.s., AOR Mr. Ashok Kumar Gupta Ii, AOR Ms. Rohini Musa, AOR Mr. M. A. Chinnasamy, AOR Mr. C Raghavendren, Adv. Mrs. C Rubavathi, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Gupta, Adv. Mr. P Raja Ram, Adv. Mr. B. Krishna Prasad, AOR M/S. Corporate Law Group, AOR Mr. Anish R. Shah, AOR Mr. Pradeep Misra, AOR Mr. Daleep Dhyani, Adv Mr. Anupam Misra, Adv. Mr. Suraj Singh, Adv. Mr. Manoj Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Amrish Kumar, AOR Mr. V Chitambaresh, Sr. Adv. Mr. S Guru Krishnakumar, Sr. Adv. Mr. S S Madhavan, Adv. Mr. Pranav Sachdeva, AOR Mr. Sanyam Jain, Adv. Ms. Mishra Divya Santosh, Adv. Mr. P Rohit Ram, Adv. Ms. Khushboo Singhal, Adv. Applicant-in-person, AOR Mr. Hiren Dasan, AOR Mr. Siddhant Sharma, AOR Mr. Gaurav Dhama, Adv. Mr. Vikram Choudhary, Adv. Mrs. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G. Mrs. Archana Pathak Dave, A.S.G. Mr. B.k Satija, Adv. Mrs. Ruchi Kohli, Adv. Mr. R.R. Rajesh, Adv. Mr. Shashwat Parihar, Adv. Mr. Parantap Singh, Adv. Mr. Satya Lipsu Ray, Adv. Mr. S.S. Rebello, Adv. Mr. Balendu Shekhar, Adv. Mr. Mohd.akhil, Adv. Dr. N. Visakamurthy, AOR Ms. Lakshmi Ramamurthy, AOR Mr. Aishwariya Bhati, A.S.G. Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, A.S.G. Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR Mr. S. S. Rebello, Adv. Mr. Balendu Shekhar, Adv. Mr. B K Satija, Adv. Mr. Rohan Gupta, Adv. Mr. Jogy Scaria, AOR Mrs. Beena Victor, Adv. Mr. Ashwani Kumar Soni, Adv.

Mr. Jayesh Gaurav, Adv. Ms. Diksha Ojha, Adv. Mr. Ishwar Chandra Roy, Adv. Mr. Farrukh Rasheed, AOR Ms. Taruna Ardhendumauli Prasad, AOR Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, AOR Mr. P. V. Yogeswaran, AOR Mr. Ashish Kumar Upadhyay, Adv. Mr. Y. Lokesh, Adv. Mr. V. Kandha Prabhu, Adv. Ms. Maitri Goal, Adv. Ms. Dhatri Singh, Adv. Mr. Guneswaran Pv, Adv. Ms. Hari Preethi, Adv. Mr. Sathya Narayanan R, Adv. Mr. K. Velmurugan, Adv. Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Deepayan Dutta, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G. Mr. Saurabh Rajpal, Adv. Mr. Kritin Saradana, Adv. Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, AOR Ms. Neha Rathi, AOR Mr. Nitesh Ranjan, AOR Ms. Priyanka Swami, Adv. Mr. K. V. Muthu Kumar, AOR Ms. S Selvakumari, Adv. Ms. Shreemoyee Bhattacharjee, Adv. Mr. Vaibhav Manu Srivastava, AOR Ms. Garima Bajaj, AOR Dr. G. Sivabalamurugan, AOR Mr. Sameer Abhyankar, AOR Ms. Yachna Sharma, Adv. Mr. Arushi Chopra, Adv. Mr. Hitendra Nath Rath, AOR Mr. Mukesh Verma, Adv. Mrs. Vatsala Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Pawan Kumar Shukla, Adv.

Mr. Yash Pal Dhingra, AOR Ms. Ruchira Goel, AOR Mr. G Ananda Selvam, Adv. Mr. Habib Muzaffar, Adv. Mr. Anand Dilip Landge, AOR Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv. Ms. Rakshita Rana, Adv. Mr. Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, AOR Mr. M. Yogesh Kanna, AOR Mr. D.kumanan, AOR Mr. S. Gowthaman, AOR Mrs. Prerna Dhall, Adv. Mr. Ambuj Swaroop, Adv. Mr. Shashi Kant, Adv. Mr. Avinash Singh, Adv. Ms. Roshni Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Prashant Singh, AOR Ms. Supriya Juneja, AOR Mrs. Anil Katiyar, AOR Mr. S. Ravi Shankar, AOR Mr. Sandeep Kumar Jha, AOR Mr. Parth Awasthi, Adv. Mr. Pashupathi Nath Razdan, AOR Mr. Vinodh Kanna B., AOR Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv. Mr. Prang Newmai, Adv. Ms. Yanmi Phazang, Adv. Mr. Aravindh S., AOR Mr. Akshay Gupta, Adv. Ms. Anika Bansal, Adv. Mr. Rajul Shrivastav, Adv. Mr. Mohit D. Ram, AOR

Mr. Pradeep Misra, AOR Mr. Daleep Dhyani, Adv. Mr. Anupam Misra, Adv. Mr. Suraj Singh, Adv. Mr. Manoj Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Nishe Rajen Shonker, AOR Mr. Shishir Deshpande, AOR Mr. Nirnimesh Dube, AOR Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Karun Shamra, Adv. Mrs. Anupama Ngangom, Adv. Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv. Ms. Madhumita Bhattacharjee, AOR Mr. Dhruv Bhalla, Adv. Mr. Praveen Swarup, AOR Mr. Ravi Kumar, Adv. Mr. Ameet Siingh, Adv. Mr. Devesh Maurya, Adv. Mr. Hari Sahteshwar, Adv. Ms. Sheetal Kandpal, Adv. Mr. Ashish Kandpal, Adv. Mr. Rohit Swarup, Adv. Mr. Shashank Singh, Adv. Mr. Sadashiv, AOR Ms. Purnima Krishna, AOR Mr. Subhro Sanyal, AOR Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR Mr. Narendra Kumar, AOR Mr. Raghvendra Kumar, AOR Mr. Arvind Kumar, AOR Mrs. Upasana Singh, Adv. Mr. Jayanth Muth Raj, Sr. Adv. Ms. Malavika J, Adv. Mr. Sureshan P., AOR

Mr. Tamal Sanyal, Adv. Ms. Lakshmi Ramamurthy, AOR Mr. Vaibhav Srivastava, A.A.G. Ms. Sugandha Anand, AOR Mr. Sanjay Kumar Visen, AOR Mr. T. V. S. Raghavendra Sreyas, AOR Mr. Siddharth Vasudev, Adv. Mr. Dhananjay Baijal, Adv. Ms. Pallavi Langar, AOR Ms. Pragya Baghel, Adv. Mr. Sujeet Kumar Chaubey, Adv. Ms. Anushka Raghunath, Adv. Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G. Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, A.S.G. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR Ms. Satya Lipsu Raj, Adv. Mr. S.S.rebelo, Adv. Mr. Balendu Shekhar, Adv. Mr. Mohd. Akhil, Adv. Ms. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Verma, Adv. Mrs. Indira Bhakar, Adv. Mr. Krishna Kant Dubey, Adv. Mr. Arkaj Kumar Ga, Adv. Mr. Harmeet Singh Ruprah, AOR Mr. Ramesh Thakur, Adv. Ms. Usha Nandini V., AOR Mr. Jayesh K. Unnikrishnan, AOR Mrs. Sasmita Tripathy, Adv. Ms. Smriti Parija, Adv. Mrs. Gitanjali Tripathy, Adv. Mrs. Gautami Budhapriya, Adv. Ms. Bhumika Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Abhilash Joseph, Adv. Mr. Ashish Kumar Rai, Adv. Mr. Ayush Baliarsingh, Adv. Mr. Somesh Sankhala, Adv. For M/S. Plr Chambers And Co., AOR Ms. Shirin Khajuria, Sr. Adv. Mr. Ankit Yadav, AOR Ms. Swati Tiwari, Adv. Ms. Gunjan Rathore, Adv.

Mr. Chaitanya Sonkeria, Adv. Mr. V. Sarvesh Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Areeb Husain, Adv. Mr. Upendra Misha, Adv. Mr. Z.H. Isaac Haiding, Adv. Mr. Daniel Stone Lyngdoh, Adv. Mr. Avijit Roy, AOR Ms. G. Indira, AOR Mr. Samir Ali Khan, AOR Ms. Samapika Biswal, AOR Ms. Soumya Sannidhanam, Adv. Mr. Ashiesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee, AOR Mr. Amrish Kumar, AOR Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR Ms. Disha Singh , AOR Ms. Eliza Barr, Adv. Ms. Akansha, Adv. Ms. Anjali Saxena, Adv. Mr. Govind Sharma, Adv. Ms. Aswathi M.K., AOR Mr. Zulfiker Ali. P.S., Adv.