Day After SC Banned Firecrackers in Delhi, Bombay High Court Says No To Sale of Firecrackers in Residential Areas in Maharashtra

Day After SC Banned Firecrackers in Delhi, Bombay High Court Says No To Sale of Firecrackers in Residential Areas in Maharashtra

Mumbai, October 10: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday imposed a blanket ban on the sale of firecrackers in residential areas across Maharashtra. The high court said the licences already allotted to shopkeepers should also be suspended.

The court's decision came just hours after minister Ramdas Kadam demanded a ban on crackers across the state.

"I will talk to Chief Minister (Devendra) Fadnavis and request if we can also ban crackers in Maharashtra in line with the Supreme Court's ruling for Delhi," Kadam, who is from Shiv Sena, told news agency ANI.

"The festivals in Maharashtra should be pollution-free. When we burn fire during Diwali, it causes pollution, affects human beings, shops get ablaze, and children also die. The high pollution has a bad effect on the atmosphere which is the reason that sometimes there is less rains and sometimes high," the minister added.

The high court's ruling comes a day after the Supreme Court banned sale of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR region till November 1.

The apex court said its last month's order, temporarily lifting the stay and permitting sale of firecrackers, would be made effective only from November 1, 12 days after Diwali - the festival of lights.

The immediate effect of Monday's order was also made clear by the top court which ordered forthwith" suspension of temporary licences issued by the police for sale of firecrackers pursuant to the order of September 12

A bench headed by Justice A K Sikri said that the November 11, 2016 order suspending the licences should be given one chance to test itself" to see if there would be a positive effect of this, particularly during Diwali

The court, in its last year's direction, had suspended all licenses which permits sale of fireworks, wholesale and retail within the territory of NCR till further orders

The apex court in 2005 had also directed that there should be a complete ban on bursting sound-emitting firecrackers between 10 pm and 6 am.