The top court said that it will ban pet coke and furnace oil entirely from November 1 if the order was not complied with. During the hearing, the bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta pulled up the Union environment ministry for failing to finalise pollution emission standards before the proposed deadline and fined it. According to an earlier order, the ministry was supposed to finalise the emission standards for industries using pet coke and furnace oil in the national capital region by June 30. Terming it as a "completely disgusting state of affairs," the bench sought reasons from the ministry for this laxity. "You (environment ministry) tell us what you were doing for 3-4 months? You file an affidavit and say we do not care about pollution. Industries have said they would comply with whatever standards are fixed. Industries say so and the ministry sits on it. We do not know what is going on," the bench said. After hearing relevant stakeholders, the the court directed the ministry and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to fix emission standards for sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides standards in its May 2 order. Representing the ministry, Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, informed the court that a draft notification in this regard was issued on Monday and a waiting period of 60 days was given in case anybody had objections to it. Singh said there are 34 categories of industries in the NCR which use pet coke and furnace oil and pollution standards for several categories have been fixed. Hen CPCB was asked, the advocate submitted that they had indicated certain emission standards to the ministry in June itself. The court was hearing a 1986 petition on air pollution. During an earlier hearing, the court was apprised about the ill-effects of pet coke and furnace oil used in industries on ambient air. In the submissions it was said that emissions from such units were highly toxic as these released high sulphur content. The apex court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) had claimed that even China has stopped using sulphur-heavy fuels since 2014 and Indian industries have been buying pet coke. EPCA elaborated that emissions from sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides should be brought down to improve the quality of air in the NCR and neighbouring regions. In order to tackle the alarming levels of pollution, last year the top court had given its nod to the Graded Responsibility Action Plan (GRAP). The court had also asked the CPCB to upgrade its existing infrastructure and set up additional monitoring stations in Delhi-NCR within six months. The GRAP, aimed at reducing air pollution, enumerated a number of measures which include closing brick kilns, hot mix plants, stone crushers, intensifying public transport services besides increase in frequency of mechanised cleaning of road and sprinkling of water on roads.