SC slams CAQM, says air quality body made no effort to implement direction to stop stubble burning

PTI, Oct 3, 2024, 5:32 PM IST

The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Commission for Air Quality Management for failing to control incidents of stubble burning in NCR and adjoining areas, and said it has made no effort to implement its direction to prevent such incidents.

The apex court said the Commission only kept on calling meetings but did not take penal action against the violators. There was no implementation of directions to stop stubble burning at the ground level and the state governments of Punjab and Haryana have done nothing except recovering nominal compensation from the farmers who indulge in stubble burning, the court added.

A three-judge bench of Justices Abhay S Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Augustine George Masih said the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has not launched a single prosecution against incidents of stubble burning in the National Capital Region (NCR) and the adjoining areas.

The bench said neither Punjab nor Haryana has placed on record any document showing efforts made to comply with the directions issued by the Commission.

“We find from the compliance affidavit filed by the commission that no effort is made by the commission to secure implementation of its own directions. There is a sub-committee (of CAQM) on safeguarding and enforcement.

“The last meeting of the sub-committee was held on August 29, 2024 in which there is not even discussion of the implementation of directions. Though there is a specific direction in the order to prosecute wrong doers under section 15 of Environment Protection Act, not a single prosecution has been launched,” the bench said.

The apex court said in one of the CAQM sub-committee meetings held on August 29, only five out of 11 members were present apart from the fact that the committee did not discuss implementation of directions. This is how sub-committees are working, the top court said.

About the qualification of expert members in CAQM, the bench noted the lack of air pollution experts on the panel and said it would exercise powers under Article 142 to bring experts in the field as a member.

Noting that 129 cases of stubble burning were detected in Punjab and 81 in Haryana in 15 days from September 15 to September 30, the top court said all that the states have done is to recover nominal compensation from 40 to 45 farmers.

The bench directed the Punjab and Haryana governments to file affidavits within a week on the implementation of the directions.

The case has been posted for next hearing on October 16.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for CAQM, informed the apex court that since its inception, the Commission has issued 83 statutory directions and 15 advisories besides various orders, guidelines and official communications from time to time, targeting each of the identified sectors.

The apex court had earlier rapped CAQM over its failure to curb air pollution in Delhi due to crop residue burning in the neighbouring states and said it needs to be more active in its approach.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the steps taken by the panel to control pollution, the bench had said CAQM needs to exercise its power under the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021.

On August 27, it termed the pollution control boards of Delhi and NCR states “ineffective” due to staff shortage and asked the body responsible for air quality management in the national capital and adjoining areas to explain how it proposes to tackle pollution and stubble burning which would spike with the onset of winter.

The top court had wondered how the sub-committee on safeguarding and enforcement to be constituted by CAQM would function because of lack of representation from the pollution control boards of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh due to vacancies.

It directed the five NCR states to fill the vacant posts urgently, preferably before April 30, 2025.

The top court had directed the CAQM chairperson to file an affidavit explaining the steps the Commission proposes to take to check the air pollution menace, often attributed to the burning of paddy straw in states adjoining the national capital.