The Supreme Court, on Monday, directed the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to reconsider its decision to close schools in Delhi-NCR, especially for classes 10 to 12. The court highlighted concerns over students losing access to mid-day meals and questioned whether air quality at home is better than in schools.

The Supreme Court also observed that the Delhi government did not properly follow Group 4 guidelines between November 18 and 23. The court said that appropriate steps were not taken to stop trucks from coming to Delhi.

Without being “satisfied that there is a consistent downward trend of AQI, we cannot permit the Commission to go down to stage 3 or stage 2,” the Supreme Court bench said on GRAP measures.

The Supreme Court on Monday (25 November) ordered the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to review its decision to close schools in Delhi-NCR, particularly for Classes 10 to 12, in light of concerns over access to mid-day meals and air quality at home.

The Supreme Court has urged the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to consider reopening schools in Delhi-NCR, noting many students were missing mid-day meals and were unable to fully access virtual classes due to limited digital resources.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih noted that the students were being deprived of mid-day meals and lacked wherewithal to attend virtual classes.

The top court, however, refused to relax the anti-pollution GRAP-4 restrictions in Delhi-NCR and said unless it was satisfied that there was consistent decrease in AQI levels, it cannot order curbs below GRAP-3 or GRAP-2.

The bench is expected to take a call again on Wednesday by reviewing the AQI position and comparing it with the figures for the corresponding period in the past few years

Despite this, the bench refused to relax GRAP-4 restrictions, and noted that a sustained improvement in AQI levels was necessary to reduce curbs to GRAP-3 or GRAP-2.