New Delhi, Sep 19 (UNI) A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court against the Delhi government’s policy for mandatory scrapping of old vehicles.
One Nagalaxmi Laxmi Narayan has filed the petition in the Apex Court raising concerns in ‘Handling End of Life Vehicles in Public Places of Delhi’ 2024 guidelines that mandatorily require the scrapping of diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years irrespective of their roadworthiness.
The plea has been filed as an impleadment application in the environmental cases filed by MC Mehta which was already pending before the apex court.
The Petitioner said that the retrospective application of the guidelines to scrap the vehicles is arbitrary, violates the Applicant’s legitimate expectation, and deprives the Applicant of their right to property under Article 300A of the Constitution.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2015 had laid down the guidelines for the scrapping of old vehicles which cause pollution to the environment. This was done to curb the growing pollution level in environment.
The Supreme Court later upheld the NGT guidelines.
However, as per the petitioner, it is not clear as to whether the verdict was prospective or not.
The petitioner contended that the scrapping rules are being applied without due consideration of the vehicles’ actual emissions or condition, causing undue hardship to their owners.
The sudden enforcement of the scrapping policy violates the vehicles’ lawful terms of purchase, the petitioner said.
The petitioner contends that the prospective application of the guidelines and policy should be called off along with compensation for those from economically lower sections of society.
This would help in protecting the environment and also ensure that well-maintained vehicles are not taken off the roads.
The petition will come up for hearing along with the other petitions related to environmental issues.
