Cracker Ban & Timing Rules by State
Cracker ban rules by state explained: the Supreme Court/NGT national floor, why states notify their own rules yearly, and where to check what applies.
Cracker ban rules by state aren't one fixed list; they're a national floor set by the Supreme Court and the NGT, topped up each year by whatever your own state or city notifies. Two courts set the baseline everyone must meet, and your state pollution control board or local police can restrict it further for the current festival season.
The short answer:
- The Supreme Court's judgment of 23 October 2018 (Arjun Gopal v Union of India, WP(C) 728/2015) is the national floor: manufacture and sale limited to green/reduced-emission crackers, bursting restricted to 8:00 pm–10:00 pm on Diwali, and a noise ceiling PESO must enforce.
- The NGT's orders of 9 November and 1 December 2020 (O.A. 249/2020) added an air-quality layer: only green crackers where air quality is "moderate" or below, and a total ban where it's "poor" or worse.
- States, Union Territories and the NCR then issue their own yearly notifications on top of that floor; Delhi in particular has repeatedly gone further with total bans covering green crackers too.
- Because those notifications are reissued every year, this page explains the framework, not a fixed per-state list; check your state pollution control board or local police notification for the current year before you buy or burst anything.
On this page
On this page
For the order in full, read Supreme Court rules on crackers in the crackers guides library; for the chemistry behind the "green" requirement, see how green crackers work.
The Supreme Court floor: green crackers and the 8–10 pm window
Every state's rules sit on top of the same national judgment. On 23 October 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Arjun Gopal v Union of India (Writ Petition (Civil) No. 728 of 2015) that only green and other reduced-emission crackers could be manufactured and sold, banning the conventional high-pollution categories outright, nationwide. The same order fixed the bursting window: 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm on Diwali and similar festivals such as Gurpurab, and 11:55 pm to 12:30 am on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. It also directed PESO, the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation, to make sure only crackers within the permitted decibel limits reach the market. In November 2023 the Court clarified that these directions apply to every state in the country, not just Delhi-NCR, closing off the idea that the rule was a Delhi-only measure.
That's the floor. No state can legally permit more than this; several choose to permit less.
The NGT's air-quality layer
The National Green Tribunal added a second, separate layer on top of the Supreme Court's floor. By orders dated 9 November and 1 December 2020 (O.A. No. 249/2020), the NGT directed that in cities and towns where the average ambient air quality is "moderate" or below, only green crackers may be sold or used, and only within the same short festival window. Where air quality is "poor" or worse, its direction goes further still: no firecrackers of any kind, green or otherwise, may be sold or used.
The two orders answer different questions. The Supreme Court's 2018 judgment decides what kind of cracker is legal to make and sell, and when it can be burst. The NGT's 2020 orders decide whether crackers are permitted at all in a given place, based on how bad the air already is there. A city can meet the Supreme Court's green-cracker standard and still fall under the NGT's total ban if its air quality reading is poor enough that festival season.
Why there's no single fixed state-by-state list
This is the part that trips up a lot of pre-Diwali searches: there is no single, permanent table of "which states ban crackers." What exists is the SC/NGT floor above, plus a fresh notification from each state pollution control board, city administration, or the NCR authorities, issued for that year's festival season. A state that allowed green crackers with no extra restriction last year can tighten or loosen its position for the next one, depending on air-quality readings, court directions that year, or local administrative decisions.
Treating any list of state-by-state bans as fixed is a mistake, because the underlying notifications aren't fixed either. The honest, useful version of this page is the framework itself, plus a clear instruction on where to check: your state pollution control board's current notification, or your local police department's festival-season order, both usually published in the weeks before Diwali.
Delhi: the clearest example of a state going further
Delhi is the best-documented example of a state or UT layering stricter rules on top of the national floor. Beyond the SC/NGT baseline, the Delhi government and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee have repeatedly imposed additional total bans on the manufacture, storage, sale and bursting of all firecrackers, including green crackers, going further than what the Supreme Court or NGT orders require on their own. These Delhi-specific bans are issued and re-issued periodically rather than sitting as one permanent rule, which is exactly why the notification needs to be checked for the year in question rather than assumed from a previous Diwali.
Other states and the wider NCR have followed a similar pattern of adding their own layer on the national floor, sometimes tightening it and sometimes simply reaffirming the SC/NGT position locally. What holds across all of them is the same two-tier structure: the national floor first, the local notification on top.
How to check the rule that applies to you this year
Before you buy or plan around crackers this Diwali, check two things. First, your state (or, if you're in NCR, the relevant NCR) pollution control board's current-year notification, which is where any extra restriction beyond the SC/NGT floor gets published. Second, your local police department's festival-season circular, which often repeats the timing window and enforcement details for your city specifically. Neither of these should be assumed to match what applied last Diwali.
If you're shopping, the green crackers range and the green crackers price list are built around the certified, legal category everywhere the floor applies; for timing specifics, Diwali muhurat and cracker bursting timings and Diwali crackers bursting timings across Indian cities go deeper on the 8–10 pm window itself. If you live in a flat or housing society, Diwali crackers for apartments: what's allowed covers the additional building-level restrictions that sit outside government notifications entirely. For the noise ceiling PESO enforces under the Supreme Court order, firecracker decibel limits explained and PESO licence for fireworks explained cover that ground, and eco-friendly Diwali: celebrating with green crackers is a useful companion if you're planning a lower-impact celebration regardless of what your local notification says. Since delivery timelines shift with demand, how early should you order Diwali crackers online is worth reading before you order.