With just days left for Deepavali, the Madras High Court has banned online sale of crackers till 15 November on a petition by a fireworks trader who cited loss of business and raised safety concerns. Justice S Vaidyanathan passed the interim order and issued notice to the Deputy Chief Controller of Explosives and the Commissioners of the Chennai Police and Corporation.
While Deepavali is a festival of lights and crackers, safety of fireworks is of paramount importance. True, these are the days of online trading with anything and everything being available on e-commerce portals for sale. But this cannot be applied to crackers business, as even a small lapse could end up in a major disaster. Officials who lay a lot of rules and regulations for physical shops selling crackers, may not do the same for online stores.
Hence, one can say this order by the High Court has come at the right time. According to the petitioner, M Shaik Abdullah, who submitted that he was a member of the Chennai Metro Fireworks Dealers Association and had been selling crackers at the designated place notified by the licensing authorities for the past 15 years, the 118-member association was committed to supporting the fireworks cottage industry in Sivakasi and surrounding villages and they were selling only indigenous crackers. However, several other traders in the city were unlawfully selling crackers online and for the coming Deepavali season, they have started advertising about the websites through which orders can be placed, the petitioner said. Stating that online sale of crackers was against the explosives rules and guidelines, he said it also posed severe threat to general public as the crackers were stocked, transported and delivered without any safety measures. If that is the case, action should be taken against those involved in this illegal and dangerous business.