New Delhi: The district administration in Old Delhi on Wednesday sealed three shops selling prohibited firecrackers without valid licences, during inspections carried out in compliance with Supreme Court directions. Two shops and godowns in Sadar Bazar and Qutab Road were sealed, along with a shop in the Jama Masjid area that was found mixing non-green firecrackers with green ones. Inspections will continue for several more days, according to the Hindustan Times report of the action.

Source: Hindustan Times via Inshorts

The sealing is the first enforcement action reported since the earlier development on Tuesday, when a Supreme Court bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Prasanna B Varale took note of a Hindustan Times report describing the open sale of different kinds of firecrackers in Delhi markets despite the court's restrictions ahead of Diwali, and asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to look into the alleged violations. The newspaper's visits to markets including Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazaar, Shastri Nagar, Sarojini Nagar and New Friends Colony had found crackers displayed as green or pollution-free, conventional crackers reportedly available on request, and several boxes without QR codes or with codes that did not allow verification.

Source: ANI via DailyPrabhat

Under the court's order of November 2 in the long-running Arjun Gopal case, only firecrackers certified by CSIR-NEERI and PESO may be manufactured and sold in Delhi-NCR. Sales of certified green crackers are permitted from November 4 to 6 at designated locations only, online sales are prohibited, and bursting is allowed only on November 7 and 8, between 6 am and 7 am and between 8 pm and 10 pm. Firecrackers joined in series (laris) and those containing barium are banned, every box must be sealed and carry a product- and batch-specific QR code, and no crackers may be burst within 300 metres of hospitals, healthcare centres, old-age homes, educational institutions and notified silence zones. The complete ban on firecrackers is to be restored from November 9.

Source: Bar and Bench

In its order, the court noted that earlier blanket bans had failed to prevent the illegal sale and use of conventional firecrackers, which were often passed off as green crackers, and expressed concern at weak enforcement by the authorities. The Jama Masjid shop sealed on Wednesday was found doing exactly that - mixing non-green firecrackers with green ones, according to the report.

Sadar Bazar is one of Delhi's biggest wholesale firecracker markets, and the administration said inspections across Old Delhi markets will continue for several more days as the November 4 to 6 sale window runs.