No coercive steps against owners of old vehicles in Delhi-NCR: SC

The Delhi government moved the top court challenging the blanket ban on diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years.

New Delhi: In a big relief to owners of end of life vehicles in Delhi NCR, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that no coercive step would be taken against those who owned 10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol vehicles.

A bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justices Vinod K Chandran and N V Anjaria issued notice on an application filed by the Delhi government to recall the court's order of October 29, 2018, that upheld the National Green Tribunal's 2015 directive in this regard.

"In the meantime no coercive steps to be taken against the owners of the car on the ground that they are owning 10 years old in respect to diesel vehicles and 15 years old with respect to petrol vehicles," the bench said.

The court scheduled the matter for consideration after four weeks.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi government submitted that the ban on such vehicles was required to be stayed as the police will be under the obligation to start the seizure.

He also contended that the directive was arbitrary.

Advocate Charu Mathur appeared for Arun Kumar Singh and others, individual owners of such vehicles, who contended they paid full taxes and registration fees for 15 years. The retrospective application of the guidelines to vehicles purchased before the 2015 order is arbitrary, violates their legitimate expectation, and deprived them of their right to property under Article 300A of the Constitution.

The policy treated all overaged vehicles as equally polluting, regardless of their actual emission levels. This lack of classification based on pollution levels, despite the availability of modern emission testing technologies, is arbitrary. Some older vehicles may still meet emission standards due to proper maintenance, their plea stated.

In its plea, the Delhi government contended that the blanket age-limit decision was not backed by any comprehensive scientific study or environmental impact assessment.

It said to tackle pollution in the NCR region, a comprehensive policy is required which gives vehicle fitness based on actual emission levels of individual vehicles as per scientific methods rather than implementing a blanket ban based solely on age of the vehicle.

It maintained that there is no data-driven evidence establishing that all diesel vehicles older than 10 years or petrol vehicles older than 15 years are uniformly polluting.

In its plea, the government said that a more rational evidence-based policy must replace the current arbitrary age cut-off, focusing on actual emissions and roadworthiness of the individual vehicles.

It pointed out most developed countries, including the European Union, Japan, the United States, and others, do not adopt blanket bans based solely on age of the vehicle, rather have a measured and sustainable approach to deal with the issue of Air Pollution and De-congestion of City Centres holistically.