India, Nov. 4 -- Within a day of allowing green firecrackers in Delhi-NCR, the Supreme Court was confronted with evidence of how the order was playing out. On Tuesday, the bench cited an HT report showing markets across the Capital selling every kind of cracker, "licensed, unlicensed, QR code, or no QR code", and asked the Centre, the Delhi government and the police to act.

What HT found should give pause to anyone who believes Diwali pollution can be managed with a label. In Sadar Bazaar, conventional crackers came out from inside shops or from nearby warehouses on request. Many boxes carried no QR code. Others had codes too small to scan, or ones that led to sales catalogues rather than proof of certification. Vendors were taking home-...