In a major relief to carmakers in India, the Supreme Court has said that it is open to lifting the diesel car ban in Delhi-NCR on the condition of ‘one-time cess’ on the affected vehicles. It was December 2015, when the Supreme Court had decided to ban the registration of diesel cars and SUVs above 2000cc to curb rising pollution level in Delhi and NCR. Initially, the ban was kept till March 31 but it was further extended.
After hearing the argument of lawyers representing carmakers, the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur said, “We are inclined to allow registration. We are open to the registration subject to some kind of one-time cess,”
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The bench also asked lawyers of automobile players to come up with the proposal as to how the cess can be levied on such vehicles at the time of registration. The lawyers agreed to it and said to come out with a ‘concrete proposal’.
Besides this, the Supreme Court bench also asked if there were any prescribed emission standards for diesel vehicles in India. Gopal Subramanium, one of the layers representing automobile players, said that currently Euro-IV/BSIV emission norms are in place for all the vehicles and advance fuel is required to move on to Euro-VI/BS-VI norms. For people not in the know, the Government of India has already decided to jump direct to BS-VI norms from the current BS-IV by 2020.
Toyota, Mahindra & Mahindra, General Motors and Mercedes-Benz were among the worst hit carmakers due to this diesel car ban in Delhi-NCR, thus they decided to move to the Supreme Court to modify the judgement.
List diesel cars banned in Delhi NCR – 8 popular cars
1. Toyota Innova Crysta (2.4-litre & 2.8-litre diesel)
2. Toyota Fortuner (2.4-litre & 3.0-litre diesel)
3. Mahindra Bolero (2.5-litre diesel)
4. Mahindra Scorpio (2.2-litre & 2.5-litre diesel)
5. Mahindra XUV500 (2.2-litre diesel)
6. Ford Endeavour (2.2-litre and 3.2-litre diesel)
7. Chevrolet Trailblazer (2.8-litre diesel)
8. Tata Safari Storme (2.2-litre diesel)
