Kolkata: No bursting of crackers from 10 pm to 6 am during Shab-e-Barat, the Calcutta High Court on Monday directed in a PIL filed by a Ripon Square resident. She complained that, in the absence of any regulations, irregular bursting of crackers took place, affecting her "right to life, health, clean environment and peaceful residence under Article 21 of the Constitution".
Shab-e-Barat will be celebrated from Feb 3 evening to Feb 4. The 36-year-old woman filed the PIL complaining that despite there being a police picket last year, and the filing of various complaints, no action was taken against the rule-flouters.
The plea before the division bench of Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen was to ensure that no illegal firecrackers were used by people and that a time limit was fixed for bursting firecrackers.
"The Pollution Control Board and the police authorities shall ensure that no firecrackers which are not permissible and hazardous to the environment are permitted to be used during the festival. The firecrackers shall not be permitted to be used at night from 10 pm to 6 am," the division bench ruled.
The cops were directed to provide adequate security to the litigant and her family members during the festival. "Despite strict judicial and administrative restrictions on firecrackers during festivals such as Diwali, Kali Puja and New Year Eve, no comparable regulatory framework is enforced during Shab-e-Barat. This regulatory vacuum led to rampant misuse, with firecrackers being burst not only on the night of Shab-e-Barat but from the first day of Shabaan and continuing for several nights, causing prolonged air and noise pollution," the litigant stated in her petition.
The litigant claimed that in previous years, when she protested against the bursting of firecrackers, some anti-social elements threw crackers inside her premises.