SC eyes stricter vehicle rules for Delhi-NCR to combat air pollution

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday broadened its examination of vehicular pollution in Delhi-NCR, questioning authorities about parking regulations, vehicle ownership limits, and the push for electric mobility, while emphasising the critical need for robust public transportation.

A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said it would deliberate the norms granting permission to construct apartments and said no building without a specified parking lot would be allowed to come up.

“We need to deal with it … what does the Delhi master plan say? What is the process for granting permission to construct a residential building?” asked the bench.

Whether there was any restriction on purchase of a second or third car by a family in Delhi-NCR, it asked further.

“We need to have a robust public transport system to ensure that vehicular pollution does not rise,” said the bench. The top court asked the government for its plan to make electric vehicles affordable.

The court cast a wide net by issuing notices to multiple stakeholders, including the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the Central government, Delhi government, and the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). The authorities must respond by February 3 when the next hearing is scheduled.

The CAQM had informed the top court of asking the Delhi government and the neighbouring states for a strict compliance of emission standards and pollution norms given vehicular pollution contributed heavily towards poor air quality.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by environmentalist M C Mehta in 1985 on the issue of pollution.

It recently mulled over making hologram-based colour-coded stickers for vehicles mandatory in the country and stressed on the effective implementation of the pollution under control certificate norms.

The court said it was considering making the stickers mandatory in states and union territories beyond the NCR.

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

These stickers, which facilitate identifying vehicles based on the fuel used, were also supposed to include the dates of registration of the vehicles.

The NCR states include Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.