JODHPUR, March 2 -- The Rajasthan High Court has sought a response from the state government regarding the excise department's tender for the purchase of 36-micron plastic holograms, questioning why holograms thinner than the mandated 50-micron limit are being procured. Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the tender, a division bench of acting chief justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and justice Baljinder Singh Sandhu issued the notice on Friday. Advocate Abhijay Negi, representing petitioner Abhinav Thapar, argued that the excise department had floated the tender on December 11 last year for 36-micron polyester holograms. He said that this was a clear violation of Rule 4(D) of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, which mandates that plastic sheets or similar materials must have at least a minimum thickness of 50 microns. The petition states that the tender proposes the purchase of approximately 600 crore holograms over two years. It warns that this would lead to the proliferation of large quantities of non-biodegradable plastic waste in the environment. The plea further highlights that this action not only contravenes directives from the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change but also notes that similar tenders have already been cancelled in states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Telangana. In those states, Pollution Control Boards had clarified that 36-micron holograms fall under the category of banned single-use plastic. It was also brought to the court's notice that even before the PIL was filed, the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board on January 19 and the environment secretary on January 23 had written to the excise department advising it to align the tender with the legal provisions. Despite these communications, the department issued a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) for the contract on January 20. The high court bench has directed all parties to file their responses within two weeks. The next hearing in the matter is scheduled for March 17....