Supreme Court Temporarily Allows CSIR-NEERI-Approved Green Crackers In Delhi-NCR On Nov 7-8, As Complete Ban Resumes Nov 9

Since 2018, the Supreme Court had issued directions regulating firecrackers in Delhi-NCR. In 2024, a complete ban was imposed, but in October 2025 the Court temporarily permitted the sale and use of specified green crackers and directed monitoring and reporting. The Court later found that the authorities had not adequately implemented those directions or supplied the data needed to assess their effects.

In the present proceedings, traders sought permission to sell green crackers and restoration of cancelled licences, while the petitioners sought a complete ban.

The Court considered the competing concerns of pollution, public health, illegal firecracker sales and the effectiveness of a complete ban.

Article 25(1) of the Constitution protects the right to practise, profess and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality, health and the other provisions of Part III.

Article 21 encompasses the right to a healthy, safe and pollution-free environment.

The Court relied on its prior approaches in Arjun Gopal (2018) and M.C. Mehta (2025), which balanced firecracker use against environmental and public-health concerns through time-bound, conditional regulation.

It also invoked the Precautionary Principle as a basis for proactive environmental protection.

The Court accepted that firecrackers contribute to pollution and that previous regulatory measures had not achieved their intended results, in significant part because of poor implementation.

It nevertheless considered the record insufficient to determine whether a complete ban had effectively reduced pollution; the Court also noted that AQI levels had not significantly improved during the ban and that conventional crackers continued to be sold illegally as green crackers.

In light of the competing concerns and the inadequate monitoring data, the Court chose temporary, conditional regulation rather than continuing the complete ban, while requiring stronger enforcement, product verification, AQI monitoring and post-festival health and pollution reporting.

Bur ursting was permitted only between 6:00–7:00 a.m. and 8:00–10:00 p.m. on 7 and 8 November 2026, subject to restrictions including no-cracker zones, designated sale locations, product-specific QR codes, enforcement measures and monitoring.

The complete ban was to resume from 9 November 2026, and the authorities were directed to file compliance reports by 14 December 2026; the applications were listed for further compliance on 16 December 2026.