Delhi's Air: Three Decades of Supreme Court Orders, One Statutory Commission, Still No Clean Air
Since 1998, the Supreme Court has driven a succession of statutory and quasi-statutory bodies — first the EPCA, then the statutory Commission for Air Quality Management — tasked with fixing Delhi-NCR's air. In January 2026, the Court itself declared the CAQM 'unserious' and 'failing in performing its duty,' after two decades of missed deadlines, un-prosecuted violations and air quality that remains among the worst of any capital region in the world.
The Promise
“The Commission for Air Quality Management ... is failing in performing its duty.”
— Supreme Court of India, Apex court, exercising continuing supervisory jurisdiction over Delhi-NCR air pollution since 1998 · 6 January 2026
Remark made by the Supreme Court while criticising the CAQM's response to the Delhi-NCR air pollution crisis, describing its approach as 'unserious' and stating it was 'in no hurry to identify cause or solution,' and rejecting the Commission's request for a two-month extension to submit findings.
The Standard
A statutory body for Delhi-NCR air quality management that identifies pollution sources with reliable data, enforces the Graded Response Action Plan and other emergency measures, prosecutes violators, and delivers a measurable, sustained improvement in air quality index levels toward national and international safe standards.
Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021; National Clean Air Programme targets; Supreme Court directions issued in the ongoing M.C. Mehta and related air-quality litigation
In force from 1 October 2020
The Reality
The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) was constituted by the Supreme Court in 1998 to address Delhi-NCR's air pollution but, lacking statutory backing, had limited power to enforce compliance; it was dissolved in October 2020 and replaced by the statutory Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), created by ordinance and then by Act of Parliament, which retained EPCA's Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) as its main operational tool. Despite the new body's statutory powers, the Supreme Court has since October 2025 repeatedly criticised the CAQM over a series of shortcomings, including infrequent committee meetings, absenteeism among its officials, a 'wait and watch' approach to emergency measures, and what the Court characterised as a lack of intent in prosecuting officials and polluters found in violation of pollution-control orders. In January 2026, hearing the matter amid 'very poor' air quality readings in Delhi, the Supreme Court described the CAQM as 'unserious' and 'in no hurry to identify cause or solution,' rejected the Commission's request for a further two-month extension, and separately noted that CAQM reports continued to reveal missed deadlines for proposed measures and inadequate attention to major pollution sources including thermal power plants — a pattern independent commentary has described as a decades-long cycle in which each newly empowered pollution body eventually draws the same judicial rebukes as its predecessor, without Delhi-NCR's air quality durably improving.
As of 6 January 2026
The Gap
Bars share a single zero-based scale. No axis truncation is used to exaggerate or minimize the gap between the two figures.
Timeline
- AnnouncementSupreme Court constitutes EPCA
The Supreme Court sets up the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority for the National Capital Region to address air pollution, though the body lacks statutory enforcement powers.
- RevisionEPCA dissolved, statutory CAQM created
The government dissolves EPCA and creates the statutory Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas, intended to have stronger enforcement powers than its predecessor.
- StatusSupreme Court begins renewed criticism of CAQM
The Supreme Court begins a series of hearings criticising the CAQM over infrequent meetings, absenteeism and a lack of urgency in identifying and acting on pollution sources.
- StatusSupreme Court calls CAQM 'unserious,' rejects extension
Amid 'very poor' Delhi air quality, the Supreme Court states the CAQM is 'failing in performing its duty,' calls its approach 'unserious,' and rejects the Commission's request for a two-month extension to report on major pollution causes.
Legal Status
This is an ongoing governance failure supervised through continuing Supreme Court writ jurisdiction rather than a criminal case. The Court has repeatedly found the statutory air-quality body underperforming its statutory mandate, but this entry found no record of criminal prosecution or conviction of CAQM officials themselves for the body's institutional shortcomings; enforcement action under the CAQM Act has been directed at polluting entities and individuals separately, with prosecution rates themselves cited by the Court as inadequate.
Verdict
Nearly three decades after the Supreme Court first intervened directly in Delhi-NCR's air pollution crisis, and five years after Parliament replaced an unempowered advisory body with a statutory commission specifically to fix the enforcement gap, the Court's own 2026 assessment is that the new body is 'unserious' and 'failing in performing its duty' — a rare case where the judiciary itself, rather than an external auditor or journalist, has formally declared the current governance architecture a continuing failure.
The Supreme Court's own remarks, quoted and reported contemporaneously across multiple independent outlets in January 2026, are the core evidentiary basis for this entry's central claim. Confidence on the specific institutional history (EPCA to CAQM transition) is high and drawn from consistent independent reporting; confidence on granular causes of persistently poor air quality (stubble burning versus vehicular emissions versus industrial sources) is not assessed here as it remains a matter of ongoing scientific and policy dispute.
What remains incomplete
- This entry has not reviewed the CAQM's own reports or Supreme Court order texts directly, relying on contemporaneous independent reporting of the January 2026 hearings.
- The relative contribution of different pollution sources (stubble burning, vehicular emissions, industrial and thermal-plant emissions, construction dust) to Delhi-NCR's air quality crisis remains scientifically and politically contested and is not adjudicated in this entry.
- Specific prosecution and penalty statistics under the CAQM Act, and how they compare to violations detected, have not been compiled here beyond the Supreme Court's general criticism of low enforcement.
- The outcome of the Supreme Court's rejected extension request and subsequent CAQM reporting after January 2026 has not been tracked in this entry.
Sources
Related investigations
The Amrapali Group Homebuyers Fraud
Amrapali Group took money from over 40,000 homebuyers for Noida and Greater Noida flats, then diverted thousands of crores of that money into unrelated ventures while construction stalled for years. The Supreme Court eventually cancelled the group's RERA registration and handed its projects to state-run NBCC to finish.
The Jaypee Infratech Insolvency and Homebuyers Case
Jaypee Infratech sold flats to over 20,000 homebuyers along the Yamuna Expressway, then defaulted on bank loans and entered insolvency in 2017. It took nearly seven years, a Supreme Court intervention, and two competing bidding rounds before the Suraksha Group finally took over the company in 2024 — with many buyers still waiting more than 15 years for possession.
The Unitech Group Homebuyers Fraud
Unitech collected over Rs 14,000 crore from nearly 30,000 homebuyers for flats it never finished, while a Supreme Court-ordered audit found its promoters had diverted thousands of crores abroad. The Chandra brothers spent years in jail, the government took over the company's board, and thousands of buyers are still waiting for their homes.