The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain on technical grounds Delhi government’s plea for directing the closure of 10 coal-fired thermal power plants in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh that have allegedly been set up without toxic gas mitigation measures and are contributing to the pollution in the capital. These plants have allegedly been set up without the installation of flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) facilities, which remove toxic sulfur dioxide from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants. Advertisement The court wondered how a state could file a public interest litigation. A PIL is normally filed by a citizen or an NGO for the enforcement of fundamental rights of citizens. The AAP government in Delhi had filed a PIL for a direction to the three states and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).