High court upholds Delhi govt’s stand

Planning to shop? Then carry a bag from home as the Delhi High Court on Monday endorsed the ban on plastic bags imposed by the Delhi Government citing environmental damage.

Planning to shop? Then carry a bag from home as the Delhi High Court on Monday endorsed the ban on plastic bags imposed by the Delhi Government citing environmental damage.

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The ban was imposed seven months agoPlanning to shop? Then carry a bag from home as the Delhi High Court on Monday endorsed the ban on plastic bags imposed by the Delhi Government citing environmental damage.

Dismissing a petition filed by the All India Plastic Industries Association challenging the ban, the court upheld the January 7 government notification banning use of plastic bags in the Capital’s shopping malls, five-star hotels, restaurants, dairies, vegetable outlets.

The association had termed the ban “arbitrary” and one imposed “without taking into consideration the practicality and feasibility”.

It also accused the government of over-stepping its limits saying the court order of August 7, 2008, on the basis

of which the ban notification was issued never ordered a blanket ban.

The plastic traders contended that they were not consulted before enforcing the ban and argued that it had badly affected their business.

“It is clear that the limitation on the sale, use and storage of plastic bags in certain areas in Delhi has been laid down keeping in view the problem of solid waste management, particularly of plastic bags, which choke drains and enter the food chain thereby potentially causing health risks,” said a Bench of justices Madan B. Lokur and A.K. Pathak.

“Merely because some commercial interests of the petitioners are diluted does not mean that there is no public interest in issuing the impugned notification,” the judges said.