Road Ministry to argue that not age but the condition of vehicles and emission norms should drive any such ban.

New Delhi: The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry is planning to appeal the Supreme Court’s Monday order prohibiting the plying of 10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol vehicles on roads in the National Capital Region.

Senior government officials familiar with the development told ThePrint that the ministry will take a stand that banning vehicles on the basis of age is not the right call.

“It should be the condition of vehicles and their emission standards and not their age that should be taken into account,” a government official said.

“If somebody has brought a diesel car in 2008, it will get impounded now. But if another person buys the same model with the same emission norms in 2010 or later, it will escape the ban. This is discriminatory.”

Another official added that the pollution under control certificate (PUCC) mechanism was already in place to check vehicular pollution. “There is a PUCC regime in place to check if vehicles are flouting emission norms. What is the point of having the PUCC then?”

Last year, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had also banned the plying of 10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol vehicles on Delhi-NCR roads.

Road ministry may be party to DHI appeal

The Road Ministry, government officials said, is contemplating becoming a party to the appeal filed by the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI), which had in January 2017 approached the Supreme Court against the NGT order.

“The Road Ministry is planning to become a party with the Department of Heavy Industries in the case,” a government official said.

The DHI had also appealed against banning vehicles on the basis of age and had argued that it results in loss of vehicles, especially personally owned vehicles that have been maintained well.

push for clean air

On Monday, the apex court, while giving its order, had attributed it to the prevailing pollution situation in the region, which the court described as being “very critical”.

The court has directed the Delhi transport department to identify such vehicles and impound them. It also said that a list of such vehicles should be put up on the website of the Central Pollution Control Board and the NCR’s transport department.

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