The Supreme Court on Friday opened its hearing on the air pollution crisis in Delhi and the National Capital Region with a pointed remark from the Chief Justice of India, who told those present in the courtroom that he hoped they were enjoying the weather in Delhi.
The remark, delivered by Chief Justice Surya Kant at the start of the proceedings, captured the mood of a hearing in which the court expressed deep concern about the deterioration of air quality in the capital, and questioned whether the measures taken so far to tackle the problem were equal to the scale of the crisis.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, was hearing a suo motu case examining the regulatory framework for air pollution in the region.
The court's concern was grounded in the numbers. Delhi's overall Air Quality Index stood at 389 at 8 am on Friday, placing it in the very poor category according to the Central Pollution Control Board, and the bench noted that the index was already touching 400, the threshold for the severe category.
Senior advocate Aparajita Singh, who assists the court as amicus curiae in the matter, told the bench that pollution levels were hovering around the severe category and were even affecting her voice. Breathing the air in Delhi-NCR, she said, was equivalent to smoking 30 cigarettes a day.
The hearing ranged across the causes of the pollution and the measures available to address it. On stubble burning, the court said the procurement price for crop stubble, known as parali, should be announced well in advance, and the management system for collecting and handling it should be provided to gram panchayats.
The bench pressed for a system that would give farmers a financial incentive to sell crop residue instead of burning it, rather than relying on enforcement alone. Singh told the court that stubble burning had contributed 14 per cent to Delhi's pollution levels on November 5, and that the share was only aggravating the situation.
The court also turned its attention to vehicular emissions and congestion, with the Chief Justice pointing to bumper-to-bumper traffic and weak public transport as major contributors to the pollution in Delhi-NCR.
The bench questioned whether the authorities had devised any scientifically grounded strategy beyond the recurring emergency responses that are rolled out each winter, describing stop-gap restrictions on vehicular movement and construction activity as old, tried and failed measures. The court asked what unusual, temporary steps were required during this period to keep pollution under control, and whether the regulators had anything new to offer.
The bench made clear that it did not believe that imposing more restrictions and passing more orders would necessarily resolve the problem. The Chief Justice observed that issuing more orders could lead to more cases of non-compliance, and the court emphasised the need to revisit traditional customs and practices during festivals, encouraging responsible celebrations, particularly during Diwali.
Justice Bagchi observed that the issue was linked to the commercialisation of festivals as well, a point that reflects the court's broader concern that pollution is not the product of a single cause but of a combination of practices and pressures that have built up over years.
The hearing comes at a familiar point in Delhi's annual cycle. Each winter, as temperatures fall and winds weaken, the capital's air quality deteriorates sharply, and the combination of stubble burning in neighbouring states, vehicular emissions, construction dust and local sources pushes the Air Quality Index into the very poor and severe categories.
Emergency measures, including restrictions on construction and on the movement of certain vehicles, are imposed and lifted, and the courts have intervened repeatedly over the years, hearing the same arguments and issuing the same directions.
The frustration expressed by the bench on Friday, that the measures on offer were old and tried and had failed, reflects a weariness with that cycle, and a demand for something more durable than the temporary restrictions that have become the standard response.
The court said it would pass orders in the matter and listed the case for further hearing on November 16, after the Diwali vacation. That listing means the court's engagement with the issue will continue after the festival period, when the pollution is likely to remain severe, and when the effectiveness of the measures taken in the intervening period can be assessed.
For the residents of Delhi, the hearing offered little immediate relief. The air on Friday was already close to the severe category, and the court's own description of breathing in the city as equivalent to smoking 30 cigarettes a day was a stark reminder of the health risks that the pollution poses. The amicus curiae's observation that the pollution was affecting her voice was a small, human detail, but it underlined the point that the crisis is not abstract.
It is felt in the throat and the lungs of everyone who lives and works in the region.
The court's focus on stubble burning, and on the need to announce procurement prices in advance and to equip gram panchayats to manage the residue, points to one of the few areas where a structural solution is available. If farmers can earn money from their stubble, the incentive to burn it disappears, and the contribution of stubble burning to Delhi's air can be reduced at source rather than managed after the smoke has already reached the capital.
The court's suggestion that the system be put in the hands of village panchayats is a recognition that the solution must be built at the level where the burning happens, and that it must be in place well before the burning season begins.
The broader question, and the one the court returned to throughout the hearing, is whether Delhi's pollution can be addressed by the tools that have been used so far. The bench's challenge to the authorities, to show that they have something beyond the old, tried and failed measures, is a challenge that has been issued before, and that will be issued again if the air does not improve.
The hearing on November 16 will be the next occasion on which the authorities will have to answer it.
(Reporting based on NDTV and ETV Bharat.)