SC refuses to entertain fresh PIL on rising pollution levels in Delhi, others cities
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a fresh PIL by a wellness expert seeking urgent judicial intervention to tackle a "persistent and systemic failure" in addressing the country's rising air pollution levels.
The top court, however, allowed holistic health coach Luke Christopher Coutinho to withdraw the PIL and file an intervention plea in a pending case filed by environmentalist M C Mehta on pollution.
"The petitioner seeks liberty to withdraw the plea to file an intervention in pending proceedings in the MC Mehta case," the CJI said.
The court is scheduled to hear the main plea on pollution on Wednesday.
Coutinho had filed the plea on October 24 and made the Centre, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), several Union ministries, NITI Aayog, and the governments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra as parties.
The plea said the current air pollution crisis has reached proportions of a "public health emergency", violating citizens' fundamental right to life and health under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The plea sought declaration of air pollution as a national public health emergency and formulation of a time-bound national action plan.
"The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), launched in 2019 with the target of reducing particulate matter by 20–30 percent by 2024 (subsequently extended to 40 percent by 2026), has not met its modest objectives. As of July 2025, official data reveals that only 25 of the 130 designated cities have achieved a 40 per cent reduction in PM₁₀ levels from the 2017 baseline, while 25 other cities have in fact seen an increase," it said.
Similar violations are cited in the plea for Kolkata and Lucknow, among others.
The plea sought a direction to make NCAP targets binding with "statutory force, including clear timelines, measurable indicators, and enforceable penalties for non-compliance".
In Delhi alone, 2.2 million schoolchildren have already suffered irreversible lung damage, as confirmed by government and medical studies, the plea alleged.
The plea also submits that air quality monitoring systems are inadequate.
It also sought setting up a National Task Force on Air Quality and Public Health chaired by an independent environmental health expert.
It sought immediate curbs on crop residue burning, including farmer incentives and sustainable alternatives besides phasing out high-emitting vehicles and promoting e-mobility and public transport.
The plea sought strict enforcement of industrial emission norms with real-time monitoring and public disclosure.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
