"All of you should stop using your beautiful cars, use bicycles instead", Supreme Court remarks during hearing on stubble burning

During a light-hearted interaction with lawyers in the stubble burning case, the Supreme Court today advised lawyers to switch to bicycles from their "beautiful cars".

. "All of you should stop using beautiful cars now... all of you should use bicycles now." CJI SA Bobde . This observation was made after the Court stated that it had been informally informed by experts that stubble burning is not the sole cause of air pollution.

. The Court deferred the hearing in the PIL concerning stubble burning in States of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh till next Friday in the wake of the promulgation of the Ordinance on air quality management in Delhi NCR.

.[BREAKING] President promulgates Ordinance to tackle air pollution in Delhi-NCR. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian that the Ordinance provides for setting up of a Permanent Commission consisting of representatives from the concerned states.

. The Bench agreed to hear the case next Friday, after going through the Ordinance in detail.

. While deferring the hearing, the Bench, in lighter vein, also said that it is the government's responsibility to make sure that nobody falls sick due to air pollution in the meantime.

. On October 26, the Supreme Court kept its order appointing a one-man committee to monitor stubble burning in abeyance after the Central government informed it that a legislation was under consideration.

.Stubble Burning: Centre considering law to tackle air pollution, Supreme Court keeps its order on one-man committee in abeyance. This, CJI Bobde had opined, was a "welcome step". He had observed that issues such as air pollution were ideally for the government to deal with and not for courts to delve into through PILs. He added that the Apex Court's directions on the issue came only because " people are choking because of the pollution and this is an issue that needs to be curbed."

. The Centre's proposal to bring in a law for a permanent body had found support from Senior Counsel Harish Salve . The petitioner, through Senior Counsel Vikas Singh , resisted the same on the grounds that the law, even if brought in, would be implemented late, leading to a severe air pollution menace affecting people in the coming days.

SG Mehta had, however, assured the Court and the stakeholders that the law would be implemented immediately.

. The Centre had expressed its "reservations" on the appointment of the one-man committee of Justice (retd) Madan Lokur to monitor stubble burning in the region after an order to this effect was passed by the Supreme Court.

Mehta had urged the Court to keep the order in abeyance at least till the Centre is heard.

.Supreme Court appoints Justice (retd) Madan Lokur to monitor and prevent stubble burning even as SG Tushar Mehta opposes appointment

"All of you should stop using your beautiful cars, use bicycles instead", Supreme Court remarks during hearing on stubble burning

Shruti Mahajan

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