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The Delhi High Court on Wednesday expressed concerns over the fires occurring at the Ghazipur landfill in East Delhi leading to intense pollution in the surrounding area.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla directed the Central and the State authorities to file status and action taken report disclosing the reasons for the outbreak of fire in the landfill site, steps taken to extinguish and how they are proposing to ensure that such incident does not occur.

The directions given by the bench were issued while hearing a suo moto petition concerning the control of pollution in the national capital.

The bench while hearing the petition stated concern about the media reports revealing that fires broke out at the Ghazipur landfill on March 28, 2022, and April 9, 2022, leading to the burning of hazardous waste dumped at the said landfill site which in turn led to huge smoke generation leading to severe air pollution in the area.

An application had been filed in the petition seeking direction to the governments to take steps to ensure that such an incident does not happen at the aforesaid site.

The court concluded by saying that since it is a suo moto petition, the application has to either come through an amicus curiae or a separate petition should be filed.

Therefore, the applicant withdrew his application. The matter is listed for further hearing on May 23, 2022.