The Supreme Court has flagged a newspaper report on open firecracker sales in Delhi markets a day after it permitted only certified green crackers, asking the Additional Solicitor General to look into the alleged violations.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday orally drew the attention of the Union to a Hindustan Times report describing the open sale of all kinds of firecrackers in Delhi markets despite the restrictions it imposed ahead of Diwali, and asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to look into the alleged violations [Arjun Gopal and Others v. Union of India].
A Bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Prasanna B. Varale raised the issue while hearing the batch of applications on the manufacture, sale and bursting of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR.
What the Court said
Referring to the report, Justice MM Sundresh told the ASG:
“In today’s report on Hindustan Times there’s a photograph, they say that notwithstanding yesterday’s order, now everything is available in the (firecracker) shops. Please look into it.”
He added that, according to the report, “every other cracker, licensed, unlicensed, QR code, or no QR code, everything is available,” and asked the ASG to take note.
What the report described
The newspaper report, published on November 3, described firecrackers being sold in markets including Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazaar, Shastri Nagar, Sarojini Nagar and New Friends Colony. It said vendors displayed products labelled as green or pollution-free, that conventional crackers were said to be available on request, and that several boxes carried no QR codes or codes that did not allow verification of certification. These are claims in the report and have not been examined by the Court.
The November 2 order
On November 2, the Court permitted the sale of certified green firecrackers in Delhi-NCR from November 4 to 6 and their use on November 7 and 8 within fixed time windows, with the complete ban restored from November 9. Only crackers certified by CSIR-NEERI and PESO can be made and sold, sales are limited to designated locations, online sales are barred, each box must carry a product-specific QR code, and firecracker strings and barium-based crackers are prohibited.
In that order the Court noted that earlier blanket bans had not stopped illegal sales of conventional crackers, often passed off as green crackers, and expressed concern at weak enforcement by authorities.
Why the hearing matters
The Court’s limited relaxation rests on the assumption that certification, QR codes and designated sale points can be enforced on the ground. By flagging the report within a day of its order, the Bench has put the Union and enforcement agencies on notice that compliance will be watched closely through the festival period.
Case Title: Arjun Gopal and Others v. Union of India and connected matters
Case No.: Applications in W.P.(C) No. 728 of 2015 and SMWP (C) No. 15 of 2026
Bench: Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Prasanna B. Varale, Supreme Court of India
Date of Hearing: November 3, 2026
Appearance: Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati for the Union