The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to be personally present in court on November 10 to explain why real time data on air pollution is not in the public domain.
A Bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul ordered the smog tower installed on an experimental basis in the national capital to be up and working.
The Bench said the reply given to a query about the smog tower was that disciplinary action had been proposed against the DPCC Chairperson.
“This is ludicrous. We want the tower to be working. As to against which officer what they do is their business,” the court observed in its order.
The court noted that there was no public information on the real-time monitoring of the data on advance air pollution management in Delhi.
The court was dealing with an application to direct the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to immediately release data from the study on ‘Real Time Source Apportionment and Forecasting for Advance Air Pollution Management in Delhi’.
The application also sought a direction to DPCC publish real-time source apportionment data for the sources of air pollution in Delhi on an ongoing basis, at least for the winter season of 2023-24.
It had also sought judicial intervention to direct the Government of NCT of Delhi as well as the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to reopen and operationalise the smog tower installed on Baba Kharak Singh Marg in New Delhi.
“We direct forthwith compliance by allowing the aforesaid prayers and direct the Chairperson of DPCC to remain personally present in court on the next date,” the court ordered.
