CALLING THE POLLUTION LEVELS in Delhi “very, very serious” and warning that masks offer little protection against the toxic air, the Supreme Court on Thursday advised lawyers to appear before the Court through video conferencing instead of attending physically.
A Bench of Justices Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Atul S. Chandurkar said, “Situation is very very serious! Why are you all appearing here? We have the virtual hearing facility. Please avail it. This pollution will cause permanent damage.”
When Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who was present in court, remarked that lawyers were wearing masks, Justice Narasimha responded, “Even masks are not enough. It will not suffice. We will discuss it with the Chief Justice as well.”
A day earlier, on Wednesday (November 12), a Bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran had directed the Punjab and Haryana governments to file detailed status reports on the measures taken to curb stubble burning — a major contributor to the worsening air quality in Delhi-NCR.
The Court had asked both States to inform it of the concrete steps being undertaken to address crop-residue burning.
“Even masks are not enough. It will not suffice. We will discuss it with the Chief Justice as well,” Justice Narasimha said.
During that hearing, one of the advocates pointed out that although the Commission for Air Quality Management (‘CAQM’) had implemented Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) Stage III, the severity of air pollution required immediate escalation to GRAP Stage IV, which enforces more stringent emergency restrictions.
Highlighting the alarming Air Quality Index (AQI) readings — which had crossed 450 in several parts of the national capital — the advocate added that construction activities, including inside the Supreme Court premises, were still being carried out despite restrictions.
Another lawyer flagged the issue of inaccurate data being uploaded from air quality monitoring stations, alleging that false readings were appearing on official platforms and undermining the reliability of pollution data.