Supreme Court says stopping vehicles, construction to prevent pollution ‘old, tried, failed tools’

Vehicles stuck in traffic on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway amid hazy conditions, in Gurugram, on November 6, 2026.

The Supreme Court on Friday (November 6, 2026) termed measures like banning vehicles and construction to curb air pollution in the national capital as “old, tried and failed tools”.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant asked the Union government and the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) if they had any “significant scientific method other than stopping vehicles and stopping construction”.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, arguing for CAQM and the Centre, said that it would not be completely true to call such measures a “complete failure”. Ms. Bhati said emergency and pre-emptive measures like Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) have at least been able to arrest air pollution at sustainable levels.

“But yet the Air Quality Index (AQI) is touching 400...” the Chief Justice responded.

“For us, it is either ‘severe’ and ‘very severe’. ‘Very poor’ is normal. We are already touching 400. Let us not talk about a utopia where the AQI would become 100 or less,” Justice Joymalya Bagchi, on the three-judge Bench, addressed the CAQM.

Ms. Bhati agreed that the AQI was hovering near the 400s. “But every human activity, particularly in a festive season, will cause pollution. How much can we stop? Delhi invites and attracts talent and search for livelihoods from across the country. There is also a little stubble burning. In many ways, we are only doing management. But human activities have expanded so fast that we are still catching up to it,” she said.

The exchange in open court happened merely hours before the national capital graduated to GRAP-III restrictions with the air quality index rising over 400.

The court said the “commodification and commercialisation” of Deepavali by affluent, status-driven people has worsened air pollution. The poorest sections of the population, who cannot afford the splurge, often bear the worst consequences.

The Chief Justice said Delhi was “overflowing” with vehicles, especially those coming from other States like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The CJI said it was “free for all” on the capital’s roads. Even improving the fuel would not change the pollution statistics.

“Any vehicle can come to Delhi... You cannot monitor what kind of fuel is being used, what kind of pollution they are generating; What is the overall condition of these vehicles? Is there a mechanism to check? But even if you tell them to go back, the damage would already have been done,” the CJI addressed the government’s law officer.

Chief Justice Kant said no orders from the court could possibly clear the thickening smog unless the public decided to mend their ways. Justice V. Mohana suggested awareness campaigns as a desperate measure to reign in the toxic air.

“Change should be a public movement. No restrictions are going to work. The more the court passes orders, the more there would be violations. That is the tendency of people,” Chief Justice Kant observed.

The judge said people need to revert to the “original customs and cultural practices” around Deepavali.

“Going back to diyas and the simple things in life, that would be ideal,” amicus curiae, senior advocate Aparajita Singh, agreed.

Senior advocate Sanjiv Sen, who appeared for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), faced questions about the long trail of vehicles lying idle at Delhi borders.

Mr. Sen said the only way that could be prevented during Deepavali would be to ban people from rushing to and fro with gifts. Justice Bagchi said the instance was one of how commercialisation of a festival has led to a serious threat to public health.

“People who do not generate pollution, they are the sufferers. Those who travel by cycle-rickshaws, cycles, or walk, or use small vehicles...they suffer for the activities of others who can afford and make festivities a part of their status symbol,” Chief Justice Kant observed.

The court agreed to pass directions, and list the case after the Deepavali vacations.