The Supreme Court has sought a report from the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on steps taken to prevent farm fires and action taken against officers for allowing such incidents despite past orders to stop them.

A bench of Justices AS Oka and Augustine George Masih posted the matter for Friday. The bench also passed the order following an urgent mention by senior advocate Aparajita Singh, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae in a case relating to air pollution in Delhi. The bench said, since the PIL filed by environmentalist M C Mehta on the issue of air pollution in Delhi-NCR is coming up for hearing on Friday it would like to see the response of CAQM on stubble burning.

Advocate Singh, referred to newspaper reports and said that stubble burning has started in neighbouring states of Delhi. She also urged the court to seek explanation from the CAQM in this regard.