The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that no coercive action be taken against owners of diesel vehicles over 10 years old and petrol vehicles over 15
years old in Delhi, while it reviews its 2018 order imposing the ban. A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justices K. Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria admitted a review petition filed by the Delhi government and issued notice to the Union Transport Ministry and the Delhi government on an intervention application from aggrieved car owners. Petitioners argued that the criterion for restricting vehicles should be based on the actual degree of emissions rather than the age of the vehicle. "The road-worthiness of a vehicle is a technical and scientific issue that must be linked to actual emissions as opposed to blanket ban on the basis of age which is unlinked to actual emissions," they said. The court's 2018 order barred diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years in the National Capital Region as an anti-pollution measure. The Delhi government, in its plea, said the ban was no longer necessary due to stricter monitoring of emissions, expanded coverage of Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates, and the implementation of Bharat Stage VI standards since 2020. Officials also argued that the ban has harmed middle-class citizens who own well-maintained, low-use vehicles that still comply with pollution norms. They said such vehicles often clock far fewer kilometers annually and contribute little to overall emissions, while the prohibition has also hurt the second-hand car market. On Intervention application from aggrieved car owners, the top court issued notice to the Delhi government, Union Transport Ministry. Intervenors include two private citizens who are aggrieved by the old vehicles ban order. The petitioners, Arun Kumar Singh who owns a BMW bought in 2011 and Nagalakshmi Laxmi Narayanan who purchased Audi in 2014, filed applications challenging the ban order through advocate Charu Mathur.
