The Bombay High Court (HC) on Thursday said authorities cannot attribute Mumbai’s deteriorating air quality to ash clouds from the volcanic eruption in Ethiopia, observing that the city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) had been poor well before the incident, news agency PTI reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad was urged to begin hearing a group of petitions filed in 2023 regarding the city’s worsening air pollution.