Delhi Pollution: Supreme Court orders suspension of physical classes in NCR for all students

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that physical classes for all school students up to grade 12 in Delhi should be suspended for the time being in light of the acute air pollution that has gripped the national capital [In Re: Commission for Air Quality Management].

A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih passed the order on insistence by Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan who pointed out that students of classes 10 and 12 were being made to attend classes physically.

"All States (in Delhi NCR) should take an immediate call to stop physical classes of all standards upto class 12," the Court directed.

The Bench also called for strict implementation of Stage IV measures under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) as Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) remains in the "severe" category.

The Court criticized the delay in implementing GRAP stages III and IV, stating that the Commission for Air Quality Management's (CAQM) approach of waiting for AQI levels to improve before taking action contravened the Court's 2018 order, which mandated preventive measures.

"From submissions made at the bar, we find that the approach adopted by the sub committee of the commission is contrary to para 3 of the October 29, 2018 order which directed preventive steps. The approach adopted by the Commission seems to be that it waited for AQI to improve and thus delaying implementation of stage 3 and 4 which is a wrong approach. The Commission cannot wait for the improvement of AQI," the Court said.

The Court directed all governments of the National Capital Region (NCR) area to strictly implement stage IV of GRAP. It also ordered the formation of monitoring teams for monitoring actions which are required under stage IV.

It further clarified that until further orders, Stage IV will continue even if AQI falls below 450.

The Central and all State governments were directed to file compliance affidavits by Thursday, November 21.

The Court listed the matter for further hearing on November 22 when it will examine compliance with its order.

"We shall examine compliance to our order then. It is the constitutional obligation of States and Centre that citizens live in pollution free environment and thus apart from all clauses of stage 3 and 4, let all steps be taken by the government to ensure that the situation normalizes," the Court said in its order.

The Bench was hearing the case concerning pollution in Delhi and specifically examining the action taken by authorities across Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to curb stubble burning incidents.

Even as Delhi reportedly recorded the world's worst air quality index (AQI), the Supreme Court was on November 14 told that the national capital should not become the most polluted city in the world.

Earlier today, the Bench said that it is contemplating passing an order to ensure that the Graded Response Action Plan IV (GRAP IV) is in force even if the air quality index (AQI) improves and goes below 300.

In an earlier hearing, lamenting the authorities' failure to curb the bursting of firecrackers during Diwali this year, the Court had said that the right to live in a pollution-free environment is a fundamental right of every citizen under Article 21.

It had asked the Delhi government and the Delhi Police on how the ban on firecrackers to curb pollution was flouted during Diwali celebrations in the national capital.

Pertinently, it had asked the Delhi government to consider implementing a perpetual firecracker ban.

In September, the Court had pulled up the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) for failing to take adequate steps to curb pollution.

Stubble burning refers to the practice of farmers setting fire to straw stubble which remains in fields after the harvest of grains like wheat and paddy. The stubble is burnt to prepare the fields for the next set of crops. It is the easiest and cheapest way to clear the fields, but leads to a drastic dip in air quality.