Notices were sent based on a plea by All India Plastic Industries Association (AIPIA), challenging Delhi government’s October 23, 2012 notification banning the manufacture, sale, storage, use, import and transport of all kinds of plastic carry bags in the city.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar issued the notices to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Delhi government, Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and Delhi Cantonment Board asking them to submit a reply before the court on February 13.

The matter was transferred from Delhi High Court to the NGT in December last year. The tribunal had said that it was already hearing pleas against the use of plastic carry bags in Punjab and Haryana.

While sending the matter to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the HC had asked the Delhi government not to take any coercive steps against petitioner Plastic Manufacturers Association (PMA) for eight weeks.

The then chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, had issued the order which was to come into force from November 23, 2012, but the high court had stayed it then.

The association had challenged the notification saying, “...declare impugned notification of October 23, 2012 null and void being ultra vires to the parent Act, i.e. the Environment Protection Act and Rules framed there under. The notification also violates the fundamental rights of the petitioner.”

It had claimed that the city government had exceeded its jurisdiction in issuing the notification.