Bombay High Court Asks Centre To File Affidavit On Whether It Has Taken Any Decision To Ban Plastic Flowers

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Amit Borkar was hearing a petition filed by the Association of Natural Flower Growers, Pune, which sought a direction to ban the use of plastic flowers in Maharashtra.

Previously, the Court had directed the Maharashtra and the Central governments to file their responses to the petition.

Today, the Court noted that CPCB had written a letter to the Government of India stating that an expert committee constituted by the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals had included plastic flowers in the list of banned single-use plastic items. CPCB had thus requested the GOI to include plastic flowers in the list.

However, the counsel for the Union of India told the Court that the expert committee did not recommend including plastic flowers within the list of single-use plastic items.

The Court therefore asked the counsel for Union of India to seek instructions on the contents of the letter written by CPCB. It also directed the UOI to file an affidavit disclosing whether the recommendations mentioned in the letter for banning plastic flowers were considered and whether any decision has been taken.

Case title: Growers Flowers Council of India (GFCI) and Anr. vs. Union of India & Ors. (WRIT PETITION NO. 9265 OF 2024)