New Delhi: Close on the heels of Chief Justice of India T S Thakur billing of the pollution in the national capital as ’embarrassing’, the Supreme Court will today hear several petitions seeking a complete ban on diesel cars in Delhi to curb rising pollution. It will also consider whether to scrap diesel subsidy.
Among the petitions that the court will take up today is a plea filed by Arvind Gupta, an economist emphasising on Euro emission norms to be followed in Delhi. Another is filed by senior Advocate Harish Salve who is assisting the court as amicus curiae on pollution issue. He wants the court to either ban diesel cars or scrap diesel subsidy. The court will also hear petitions filed by three toddlers demanding that clear air is their birth right. Arjun Gopal and Aarav Bhandari, aged six months each, partnered with Zoya Rao Bhasin, all of 14 months old, approached the Supreme Court through their parents, to act immediately against Delhi’s spiralling pollution graph.
On the other hand the National Green Tribunal will hear a plea seeking modification of its December 12 order that said no new diesel vehicles will be registered in Delhi.
The petition has been filed on behalf of Delhi-based car dealers, who have appealed that diesel cars which were manufactured in 2015 should be allowed be sold as the existing stock would become obsolete by next year.
Around 23 per cent of the cars registered in Delhi are diesel.
