Do your cars emit oxygen, Supreme Court ask large vehicle manufacturers

"Do your cars emit Oxygen? A diesel car buyer must know that he is buying a polluting device," with this observation, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to grant any relief to car manufacturers Toyota, Mahindra and Mercedes while hearing their plea against the banning of registration of diesel cars with engines above 2000cc.

After a marathon hearing on the pollution issue for more than four hours, the court also made it clear that it will examine whether the small cars with less than 2000 cc engines equally cause pollution. And asked senior advocates Kapil Sibal and C A Sundaram, who appeared for automobile manufacturers' association, to convince the court that diesel cars do not cause pollution.

Without even sparing the Centre or the Delhi government for not replacing their diesel vehicles older than five years or converting them into CNG ones, the court said, "Why should the government be a polluter?"

"Since a large number of vehicles were being used in government offices, public sector undertakings, civic agencies etc, the government should change them or convert them into CNG vehicles," a bench headed by Chief Justice of India T S Thakur said and asked the Centre's law officer, solicitor general, to inform it about the steps taken in this regard.

Arguing on behalf of the car makers, Sibal submitted that diesel causes less than .2 per cent pollution in the air. He also told the bench that he will submit a IIT Kanpur report on it and sought modification of its order which banned cars with 2000 cc, saying Toyta's Innova, Mahindra's Scorpio and other such cars were used as cabs.

To his submission, the bench said "which class of people use such cars...," and asked him to provide empirical data showing that diesel vehicles are less polluting or are at par with petrol cars. However, the bench agreed to hear their plea on January 20.

While considering other related issues of public transport system in the city including expansion after the implementation of odd-even formula to control air pollution, the bench asked the Centre to find out if the metro can provide premium service to the people using luxury vehicles, including Mercedes.

"Can the metro provide better services for those who use luxury cars like Mercedes by charging five times than the ordinary fare. They don't want to take metro because of the rush and they don't get even the place to sit...," the bench said and sought to know whether the frequency of metro service would be augmented.

The court also asked the Centre to respond on the issue for use of Bharat-V and Bharat-VI for better standard of fuel for the vehicles. The court was informed that presently Bharat-IV is the standard of fuel and the deadline for use of Bharat-V is 2019 and for Bharat-VI it is 2020.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, who is assisting the court on the pollution issue, sought the court to direct the government to skip Bharat-V and implement Bharat-VI norms for the vehicles.

Meanwhile, the bench extended restriction of entry of trucks on NH-2, NH10,NH58 and State Highway 57 which are not bound to Delhi.

Earlier, this restriction was limited to only NH-2 and NH-8. Neighbouring states will ensure that these trucks should not enter in Delhi.

It has extended deadline for conversion of cabs in NCR into CNG till 31st March 2016.

The court also directed the Delhi government to not deny a no-objection certificate to 10-year-old diesel vehicles and 16-year-old petrol vehicles being sold outside the national capital .