SC Gives Ultimatum To Centre On Banning Import Of Pet Coke: "Take A Decision By June 30, Else We Will"

The Supreme Court gave an ultimatum to the Centre till June 30 to ban the import of petrochemical coke to India.

“Please expedite it. You cannot go on like this. By June 30, you take a decision, else we will take a decision,” the bench said.

The apex court also asked the government to consider the implementation of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in Delhi first and then in other cities as people in the state capital are suffering the most due to air pollution. NCAP is a scheme that is aimed at tackling air pollution in 100 cities.

“You have lots of programmes but you can’t implement it. You can’t implement the programmes in Delhi and you are talking about pan-India. You at least implement it (NCAP) in Delhi first,” a bench comprising Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta told additional solicitor general A.N.S. Nadkarni, who was appearing for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, reported The Wire.

Nadkarni said that a comprehensive four-week plan to tackle air pollution will be implemented and parts of it have already been implemented in Delhi-NCR.

The Court was hearing a matter of a PIL filed in 1985 by environmentalist M.C. Mehta who had raised the issue of air pollution in the Delhi-NCR. Matters related to this are posted for further hearing in July.

What is Pet Coke?

Petroleum coke or pet coke is a petroleum by-product, a residue obtained from refining heavy crude oil. It is carbon-rich. On combustion, it becomes a potent source of carbon dioxide. In 2016, India imported 8 million metrics of pet coke from the USA. China used to be the highest importer of pet coke but they stopped after realising the disadvantages of the same.

Petroleum coke is the cheaper and dirtier alternative to coal which has much higher carbon and sulphur content. Last year, Supreme Court banned the use of pet coke in Delhi-NCR region. However, an exemption was made for cement and limestone industries.

The government later informed in April this year that they are planning on a blanket ban on pet coke. This ban might hit the small and medium scale industries.