Air pollution: Supreme Court to consider extending order for colour-coded stickers for vehicles beyond NCR

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stressed on the need of hologram-based colour-coded stickers for vehicles to tackle air pollution, saying it was considering making it mandatory in states and Union Territories beyond the National Capital Region (NCR).

In 2018, the top court accepted the proposal of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), which envisaged that hologram-based light blue stickers would be used in vehicles using petrol and CNG in the National Capital Region (NCR), whereas diesel-run vehicles would have orange stickers.

These stickers, which facilitates in identifying vehicles based on the fuel used, were also supposed to include the date of registration of the vehicle.

Following the apex court's order, the Centre amended Rule 50 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and the High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) order of 2001 to give legal recognition to the scheme of hologram-based stickers.

The matter came up for hearing on Friday before a bench of Justices A S Oka and A G Masih.

The bench emphasised on enforcement to deal with vehicular pollution and said the direction for colour-coded stickers was needed to be implemented.

It said diesel vehicles could be identified at the time when the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) was in force to curb air pollution.

The bench said it may consider extending the direction for these stickers for vehicles beyond the NCR.

The apex court may extend the 2018 direction to other states and Union Territories by exercising its plenary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the bench said. It asked the concerned parties, including the Centre, to address arguments on this issue and posted the matter for further hearing on January 15.

In November last year, the top court had asked the Centre, Delhi and other NCR states for a compliance update on its direction over the use of hologram-based colour-coded stickers in vehicles.

It had observed that its December 13, 2023, direction to strictly enforce the scheme had not been complied with.

The issue of colour-coded stickers for vehicles cropped up when the apex court was hearing a matter relating to air pollution in Delhi-NCR.

The NCR states include Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

Senior advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the top court as an amicus curia in the matter, had submitted that more than 50 per cent of the vehicles plying the Delhi-NCR roads did not have colour-coded stickers.

The colour-coded sticker scheme was initially suggested by the amicus curiae to enable identification of vehicles and restrict vehicles using bad quality fuel during "poor category" pollution days.

The counsel appearing for the Centre had said the MoRTH had written to all the states for compliance of the December 13, 2023, order of the apex court.

The top court had subsequently directed all states to report on their compliance with the orders on colour-coded stickers for vehicles.

On December 13, 2023, the top court noted that of about 27 lakh vehicles in Delhi, colour-coded stickers were put on 17-18 lakh vehicles.

It had directed the Delhi government to ensure all the vehicles incorporated these stickers to possibly help in checking air pollution.

On August 13, 2018, the top court, in a first, gave its nod to the Centre's proposal of hologram-based colour-coded stickers for vehicles indicating the nature of fuel they were using.

It had suggested the MoRTH to consider having green-colour number plates or green stickers for electric and hybrid vehicles.