India, Oct. 14 -- The Supreme Court wants a "pragmatic and practical" way to regulate firecrackers. On Monday, a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant said it would respect religious sentiments and warned that people would see a restrictive orderas coercion. It then tied the Delhi-NCR case to the national one before Justice MM Sundresh, whose bench cleared "next-generation" laris (string fireworks) across the country on September 30, and both willbe heard on October 15. The most practical words in the courtroom came from the amicus curiae, senior advocate Aparajita Singh. "It is nice to say that crackers should be burst for (only) two hours. Cops cannot be there on every street," she told the bench, and asked that the Commission for Air Quality Management report on the matter. Last year bears her out. In October 2025, the court allowed green crackers in Delhi-NCR for three days, within fixed hours. Conventional firecrackers were sold openly beside boxes stamped "green" with no certification behind them, licensed makers sold theQR codes meant to vouch for genuine products, and Delhi had no laboratory to test any of it. The Capital went on to record its worst Diwali pollution peaksince 2021, despite weather conditions that would normally reduce pollution. Workable enforcement has to start where a firecracker can still be caught. Before it reaches a street, a firecracker passes through a factory, a wholesaler's godown and a licensed shop, and at each of these points, the state can take samples, seal stock and cancel licences. Once it is in a household's hands, enforcement depends on a beat constable standing on the right street, which, as the amicus pointed out, is impossible. To be sure, the supply chain leaked last year too, with QR codes resold and firecrackers coming in from outside the region. Fixing it requires testing laboratories, which Delhi lacked, and inspections that actually take place. The court should demand that before it permits a single additional firecracker, not resort to fuzzily warm statements about religious sentiments. CAQM's report should begin with what the State can enforce: how many samples it can test before Diwali, how many shops it can inspect, and what it will do with the fakes it finds. A regime that leaves the policing to millions of households has not kept Delhi's air breathable before, and there is no reason to expect it will now. If the State cannot check before sale whether a cracker is green, however much of a misnomer thatis, it should not be sold....