A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice Budihal R.B. passed the order on the petitions filed by S. Selvaraj and others, who were originally making idols from clay for their livelihood from decades but shifted to PoP because of market demands in the recent past.

The petitioners have pointed out that the KSPCB, on November 28, 2016, issued a circular asking all district authorities to take over all the unsold idols, including Ganesh idols, made using PoP and those painted with different colours, and also the raw materials such as PoP. The KSPCB had also asked the authorities to dispose such seized materials in landfills.

Stating that they would be suffering serious financial loss, affecting their livelihood, if the authorities seize the idols and the raw materials, the petitioners said that many of their idols remained unsold as festivals were not celebrated in the usual way in 2016 because of issues related to Cauvery water dispute. The petitioners also said that they had taken loans from nationalised banks for purchasing raw materials.

The petitioners said they were prepared give an undertaking to the court that they would stop making idols from PoP and storing them after October 2017, and would make idols only from clay in future.