• The Supreme Court rejected the request of Association of Power Producers (APP) to extend the 2022 deadline for meeting pollution norms by two years.

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• In 2015, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) notified emission norms for particulate matter (PM), sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen.
• Particulate matter is a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets in the air. Some particles can be seen with the naked eye; others can only be detected under a microscope.
• PM can cause serious respiratory disorders and even damage the lungs.
• It set a 2017 deadline for thermal power plants to comply with emissions standards for installing Flue Gas Desulphurization (FGD) units that cut emissions of toxic sulphur dioxide.
• FGD is a set of technologies used to remove sulfur dioxide from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants, and from the emissions of other sulfur dioxide emitting processes such as waste incineration.
• The deadline was later changed to varying deadlines for different regions, ending in 2022.
• More than 50% of the plants have not taken adequate steps to meet these emission norms.
• In February 2020, the Ministry of Power asked the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to submit a paper to suggest periodicity of pollutant monitoring as well as emission standards specific to plant locations.
• Accordingly, the CEA prepared a report, which was deemed incomplete and invalid by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).