Overview
- Filed on October 24 by wellness advocate Luke Christopher Coutinho, the petition names the Centre, CPCB, CAQM, multiple Union ministries, NITI Aayog, and the governments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra.
- It seeks a court declaration of a national public health emergency, legally binding NCAP targets with timelines and penalties, and a National Task Force on Air Quality and Public Health led by an independent expert.
- The plea cites PM2.5 and PM10 levels that exceed Indian standards and far surpass WHO guidelines, noting annual PM2.5 around 105 μg/m³ in Delhi and 90 μg/m³ in Lucknow, with Patna also extremely high.
- Critiquing policy performance, it says only 25 of 130 NCAP cities achieved a 40% PM10 reduction from 2017 levels by July 2025, while 25 worsened, and it calls short-term measures like anti-smog guns and artificial rain largely symbolic.
- It urges expansion to roughly 4,000 monitoring stations, mandatory continuous emission monitoring with public disclosure, curbs on crop-residue burning with farmer incentives, and a phase-out of high-emitting vehicles, with the case currently pending without judicial orders.