The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the report of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the use of toxic chemicals such as barium salts in manufacturing firecrackers is "very serious".
A Bench of Justice MR Shah and Justice AS Bopanna said prima facie it appears that there has been "violation" of top court's orders on use of barium and labelling of fireworks and took into note that manufacturers such as Hindustan Fireworks and Standard Fireworks purchased barium in huge quantities and used these chemicals in the fireworks.
The CBI report states that various samples of firecrackers and raw materials were collected from manufacturing factories which were sent for chemical analysis and it has been found that in many firecrackers barium and barium salts have been found, the Bench said while perusing the report of the CBI.
During the hearing, Justice Shah said, "It has also been found that a huge quantity of barium, barium salts has been bought by manufacturers despite the ban imposed on the chemical in 2019. It has also been found that labels of finished crackers have revealed they did not contain the chemical composition and year of manufacture."
On March 3, 2020, the top court had directed the Joint Director of the CBI at Chennai to carry out a detailed probe regarding the alleged violation of its earlier orders by manufacturers by using the ingredients which have been banned and by mislabelling their products contrary to the directions of the court's direction. It had sought a CBI report in six weeks.
It had noted that Standard Fireworks, Hindustan Fireworks, Vinayaga Fireworks Industries, Shree Mariamman Fireworks, Shree Suryakalaa Fireworks and Selva Vinayagar Fireworks were directed to show cause why they not be punished for contempt for violation of its earlier orders for using the banned chemicals.
Hearing the case, the Bench even warned that it will cancel these manufacturers' licenses for using banned chemicals in firecrackers and asked why should FIRs not be registered against them and why should they not be punished.
The apex court, however, said that the manufacturer's firecrackers against whom allegations are made are granted one more opportunity to put forward their case with respect to the report of the report and also issued notices to them.
Manufacturers' association of firecrackers asked the Bench that a copy of the findings of the CBI's preliminary report should be given to the manufacturers.
It has now posted the matter for the next hearing on October 6.
( With inputs from ANI )
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