The Tamil Nadu government on Monday approached the Supreme Court seeking relaxation of the two hour time limit for fireworks celebrations during Diwali. It urged the Court to extend the time allowed for the bursting of crackers and said it should also allow bursting of crackers from 4 am to 6 am.

Last week, the apex court had ordered a two-hour time period from 8 pm to 10 pm for bursting firecrackers on Diwali and said this would apply to all festivals while on Christmas and New Year’s Eve it allowed crackers to be burst between 11:45 pm and 12:45 am. The SC had also permitted the sale and manufacture of “green” firecrackers which have low emission across the country. The Court had allowed firecrackers with permissible decibel sound limits to be sold in the market.

A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan also restrained e-commerce websites like Flipkart and Amazon from selling firecrackers which were beyond the permissible limit. The top court also restrained e-commerce websites including Flipkart and Amazon from selling firecrackers which are beyond the permissible limit. The SC’s order last week came on a plea seeking a complete ban on the manufacture and sale of firecrackers across the country to curb air pollution.

                                                                                                        —India Legal Bureau