Kerala High Court partly sets aside order to seize illegal firecrackers; ban on bursting crackers at night to remain

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday partly allowed an appeal filed by the State government challenging a recent order of a single-judge of the High Court which had directed the government to conduct raids at all religious places to seize illegal firecrackers [State of Kerala v. Binoj KB & Ors.].Today, a division bench of Chief Justice AJ Desai and Justice VG Arun quashed the order except for the observation that "no crackers shall be burst in religious places at odd times"Instead, the High Court issued a clarification on the aspect stating that crackers shall not be burst between 10 pm and 6 am unless authorities issue specific orders relaxing the time frame on a case-by-case basis."We quash and set aside the order impugned except the direction issued by single-judge that "no crackers shall be burst at religious places at odd times". We hereby clarify that there should be a bar on using fireworks between 10pm and 6am unless the State authorities pass specific orders for each religious place if the case of the religious place is covered by the observations of the Supreme Court in order dated 26/03/2007 in In:Re Noise Pollution," the division bench stated in its order.It was also clarified that the State authorities are free to "take steps with regard to illegal possession of fire crackers in various places in accordance with law"The order under challenge was passed on November 3 by Justice Amit Rawal.“I thus direct the Deputy Collector with the assistance of the Commissioner of Police, Cochin, and other districts, to conduct raids in all religious places and take into possession of the crackers illegally stored in all religious places and issue instructions that henceforth onwards no crackers shall be burst in religious places at odd time as prima facie there is no commandment in any of the holy books to burst crackers for pleasing the God,” the single-judge's order stated..At the hearing today, Advocate General Gopalakrishna Kurup K, appearing for the State government, submitted that the order was passed on a petition that did not even seek such a direction from the Court. He pointed out that the petition was filed in 2015 and its subject matter was restricted to the bursting of firecrackers at a specific temple alone. He added that the direction of the single-judge was an omnibus one and was not warranted by any factual or legal circumstances..In its appeal, the State argued that the single-judge's order was neither preceded by any finding to the effect that crackers were being illegally stored in religious places nor were their any pleadings to that effect.The State government took issue with the singe-judge's observation that there is no commandment in any holy book to burst crackers to please God.In this regard, it was contended that the observation was made without any inquiry into whether there is any such custom/tradition or whether it is an essential religious practice."There are many a religious festival/event in the State, wherein the display of fireworks is an essential part of and have been carried out since time immemorial. These festivals, apart from being socio-religious events, result in a conglomeration of residents of the State cutting across class, creed, community and religion thereby enriching the secular fabric and multi cultural environment of the State and also attracts local, national and international tourists in large numbers," the appeal stated.It was also pointed out that the single-judge's order ignored certain binding precedents regarding what kinds of bans can be imposed on bursting firecrackers.On these, among other grounds, the State government requested that the single-judge's order be set aside.The division bench granted the request today, in part. .Story to be updated with order.