Bengaluru Urban DC indiscriminately granted licences though he had no power to allow storage of crackers beyond 600 kg: Karnataka High Court

Court: DCs held accountable for mishaps if they grant licences beyond 600 kg of firecrackers/sparklers; DCs must exercise caution when granting licences; petitioner's premises unlocked for licenced business activities with restriction of storing only 600 kg.

It is a matter of surprise as to how the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Bengaluru Urban district granted licences left, right, and centre when he, in the capacity as the District Magistrate, had no power under the law to grant licences to store and sell firecrackers/sparklers beyond 600 kg, the High Court of Karnataka has said.

The court made it clear that the DCs would be held accountable for any accident in future if they failed to restrain from granting licences beyond 600 kg of storage and selling of firecrackers/sparklers.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna made these observations while noticing that the DC had granted a large number of permissions for the storage and sale of fireworks/crackers/sparkles up to 1,000 kg even though the District Magistrates have no power under the provisions of the Explosives Rules, 2008, to grant licence to store and sell such items beyond 600 kg.

It is only the Controller of Explosives who has the power to grant licences for storage of selling crackers beyond 600 kg, the court noted.

The court passed order on a petition filed by Kalavathi, who had questioned the DC’s October 25, 2023, order of cancelling a licence, granted earlier and having validity till 2028, following the fire accident at a cracker godown on October 7.

Following this petition, the court directed the Deputy Controller of Explosives to conduct an inspection of the petitioner’s licence area and submit a report and it was revealed that the licence granted was illegal as it permitted storing up to 1,000 kg.

On perusing the report, the court said that what had emerged from the illegal grant of licence by the DC is that a place, which can store only 600 kg of firecrackers, is now permitted to store 1,000 kg. “It is trite that ‘a spark neglected can burn the house’. Therefore, it is high time that caution was exercised by the State in grant of indiscriminate licences,” the court observed.