SC refuses to roll back Stage 4 of Grap

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to relax the stringent curbs against air pollution under Stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) while allowing the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to consider relaxation for holding physical classes for schools and educational institutions in Delhi and NCR by the end of the day.

- Abraham Thomas

The commission, on Monday evening, announced changes to clauses in Grap, allowing schools and colleges to run on hybrid mode, instead of only online classes.

A bench headed by Justice Abhay S Oka also directed the CAQM to provide air quality index (AQI) figures till Wednesday, when the matter will be heard next, to decide on further relaxations. "Unless the court is satisfied there is a consistent downward trend of AQI, we cannot permit CAQM to go down to Stage 3 or 2."

This means the ban on construction activity is to continue, but the bench, also comprising Justice Augustine George Masih, directed CAQM to consider passing decision on various mitigating measures in this regard and ordered the states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and national capital territory of Delhi to provide subsistence allowance to labourers and daily wagers as per a previous order of the court passed in November 2021.