The supreme court on Tuesday directed the Centre to ban the use of pet coke and furnace oil in industrial units in Delhi NCR from November 1. The court mentioned in the order that the Centre failed to set emission standards for industries and henceforth it passed the said order.

A division bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta, also impose a fine of Rs 2 lakh on the Union ministry of environment and forest. The fine was imposed because it failed in setting emission standards for industries using petroleum coke and furnace oil in the NCR region.

The court directed the three states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to ban the use of these pet coke and furnace oil materials in industries. The bench made it clear that use of furnace oil and pet coke in industries of these three states will be banned from November 1.

Amicus curiae Aparajita Singh, who was assisting the court in this matter, informed the bench that the Centre was not serious about pollution in NCR and showed a reluctant attitude towards fixing the standard of pollution emission for industries.

The court passed the order while adjudicating the matter of M C Mehta who filed a case in 1985 and raised the issue of air pollution in the Delhi-NCR.

Earlier the court in its order of 2 May 2017 banned the use of furnace oil and pet coke in Delhi. The court also discussed the ill-effects of pet coke and furnace oil as it is a graded produce and by-product of refineries.  It is more polluting and the emissions from such industrial units producing furnace oil and petcoke are also polluting the air ambient and emission from such industries are highly toxic as there is a discharge of high sulphur content in the air.