New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (November 18) pulled up the Delhi government over the delay in the implementation of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) stage 4 amid severe air pollution in Delhi-NCR, saying that it will not allow scaling down of the preventive measures without its prior permission.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih highlighted that there was a delay by the authorities in the implementation of preventive measures under stage 4 GRAP even after the AQI in the national capital touched alarming levels.

“The moment the AQI reaches between 300 and 400, stage 4 has to be invoked. How can you take risk in these matters by delaying applicability of stage 4 of GRAP,” the bench told the counsel.

It further said that it wants to know what steps its what steps has the Delhi government taken to curb the pollution.

“We won’t allow scaling down of preventive measures under stage 4 even if AQI goes below 450. Stage 4 will continue till court permits,” the bench said, adding it will further hear the matter in detail at the end of the day’s work.

Delhi Govt Imposes GRAP Stage 4; Schools Shut, Flights Affected

On Sunday, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) imposed stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) given the worsening air quality in Delhi-NCR.

On Monday, as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) at 7 am, the AQI recorded in Anand Vihar (487), Chandni Chowk (444), IGI Airport-T3 (494), Dwarka (499) was recorded as “severe.”

The stage four restrictions were directed as the GRAP subcommittee held an urgent meeting on Sunday, which reviewed the current air quality, meteorological conditions, and forecasts from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) for the national capital.

Furthermore, starting Monday, all schools across Delhi will discontinue their physical classes except for Class 10 and Class 12, Delhi CM Atishi said in a tweet on X, adding that all schools will hold online classes until further notice.

“With the imposition of GRAP-4 from tmrw, physical classes shall be discontinued for all students, apart from Class 10 and 12. All schools will hold online classes, until further orders,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL)  issued a travel advisory for the flyers saying, “Low visibility procedures are in progress at Delhi Airport. All flight operations are presently normal. Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information.”

(Inputs from PTI)