New Delhi, Nov. 4 -- With Delhi's air showing alarming pollution levels, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to submit a report on the pre-emptive steps being taken to prevent further deterioration in the situation. The order was passed by a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai and justice K Vinod Chandran while dealing with the implementation of its past orders in the MC Mehta case related to monitoring of pollution in Delhi. The bench said, "We direct the CAQM to place on record an affidavit explaining what steps are proposed to be taken to prevent the air in Delhi-NCR from turning severe." The order came after the matter was mentioned before the bench by senior advocate Aparajita Singh assisting the court as amicus curiae. She said that the CAQM which is the statutory body responsible for taking steps to curb pollution in Delhi and adjoining areas is duty-bound under past orders passed by the court to take pre-emptive measures by implementing the emergency measures under Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). She said that Delhi's air has already in the "very poor" zone with AQI hovering between 300 to 400 across majority of monitoring stations. Further, she cited news reports stating that during the Diwali days, only 9 out of 37 monitoring stations were functional. "The CAQM must tell this court what pre-emptive steps they intend to take before the air turns severe," she said. Quoting the newspaper reports, she added, "If the monitoring stations have not been functioning, how do we know when to implement GRAP." To be sure, GRAP for the National Capital Region (NCR) is classified under four different stages of adverse air quality in Delhi: Stage 1 - poor (AQI 201-300); Stage 2 - very poor (AQI 301-400); Stage 3 - severe (AQI 401-450); and Stage 4 - severe plus (AQI above 450). Senior advocate Ruchi Kohli appearing for CAQM told the court that the Commission has already filed its report indicating the pre-emptive steps and the data with regard to the AQI levels during Diwali days had to be filed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Singh said, "Why is CAQM shirking from filing a report. They have been doing it in the past. This is the body which is responsible for maintaining clean air in Delhi-NCR." Additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati who appeared for Centre informed the bench that the CAQM shall file a report in terms of the court's order. The winter months in Delhi is considered to be the worst months in terms of air quality due to pollution caused by several factors including vehicular pollution, stubble burning, and pollution from other sources, including bursting of firecrackers. While there is a ban on bursting of firecrackers across Delhi-NCR imposed by the court in April this year, the top court had lifted the ban on a trial basis last month by permitting crackers to be burnt on two days - October 19 and Diwali day (October 20) for one hour (6 am to 7 am) in the morning and two hours in the evening (8 pm to 10 pm). The court order passed on October 15 had further sought pollution data in terms of AQI for a period from October 14 to 25. Based on the said order, the AQI data submitted to the court showed that on October 15, AQI in Delhi was 233 (GRAP stage I), which slipped to 296 (GRAP stage II) on Diwali eve. On Diwali and the the days that followed, the AQI deteriorated further to 345 (October 20), 351 (October 21) and 353 (October 22). The AQI recorded on Sunday (November 2) was 366 in the 'very poor' zone which was one of the worst days, the previous worst air day recorded on October 30 (AQI 373). On all other days between October 23 and November 1, the air quality fluctuated between AQI levels of 275 to 309. Further, data was also provided to the court on the stubble burning cases in Punjab and Haryana. The data revealed a drop in the number of farm fire incidents as compared to last year. Between September 15 to November 1, there were 2,084 incidents in Punjab compared to 3537 last year. While Haryana reported a drop from 819 cases last year to 118 for the specified period this year....