How can Delhi fight pollution if its monitors don't work? Supreme Court questions regulators

Delhi pollution

The Supreme Court was informed on Monday that a mere nine of Delhi’s 37 air quality monitoring stations were operational on Diwali, raising grave concerns over the reliability of the capital’s pollution data and the efficacy of its emergency response system.

The revelation prompted the top court to direct the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to submit an affidavit within a week detailing steps to prevent a further deterioration of air quality, The Indian Express reported.

The disclosure came during a hearing on the capital's perennial pollution crisis. Senior advocate Aparajitha Singh, acting as the court's amicus curiae, cited news reports to highlight the systemic failure. She argued that such instances jeopardise the implementation of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), a set of measures triggered by specific pollution levels.

“If the monitoring stations are not even functioning, we don’t even know when to implement GRAP. That is the severe situation,” Singh told the bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran. “Let them also answer what the situation of the monitoring station is, because out of 37 on the day of Deepavali, only nine were functioning continuously.”

Expressing frustration over the statutory body’s responsiveness, she added, “Why is the CAQM shirking from filing a report?”

In response, the court directed the CAQM and the CPCB to file an affidavit outlining proposed preventive measures. Counsel for the CAQM submitted that it had already filed a report on preliminary steps and shifted responsibility for pollution data to the CPCB.

The hearing underscored a pattern of judicial dissatisfaction with the commission’s performance. On September 27, the court had chastised the CAQM, stating it "needs to be more active" in checking pollution from stubble burning and agreed with the amicus curiae that it had underperformed relative to its mandate.

This ongoing scrutiny occurs against a backdrop of consistently poor air quality. On Monday, Delhi's average Air Quality Index (AQI) was 309, firmly in the “very poor” category. Delhi’s air pollution crisis deepened on Tuesday as the capital’s air quality was officially categorised as ‘very poor’.

In a parallel development, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta convened a high-level meeting to review the pollution situation. According to an official statement, she announced the formation of multiple teams to act against industrial units and seize polluting vehicles and stated that efforts were underway to “normalise conditions in identified pollution hotspots.”

Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said all agencies had been instructed to double the deployment of water sprinklers, reiterating that dust control was a “top priority.” Additional teams are also being constituted to eliminate incidents of garbage burning.

The Supreme Court’s monitoring of Delhi-NCR’s air pollution has included orders on banning polluting firecrackers and measures to curb farm fires in neighbouring states. In a significant move during a September hearing, the court mooted reintroducing penal provisions for stubble burning under The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, to “act as a deterrent.”

However, the Union government informed the court that a 2023 amendment which removed the provision for criminal prosecution was part of a national policy not to prosecute farmers.

Ahead of this year's Diwali, the court had relaxed a blanket ban on firecrackers, permitting the sale and use of approved green crackers within strictly limited time windows.

Yet, with the majority of the city's pollution monitoring infrastructure reportedly non-functional on the very night its impact was to be measured, the foundational data guiding Delhi’s fight for clean air has been called into question, leaving the judiciary demanding immediate accountability.