Commercial vehicles entering Delhi to pay pollution fee: SC

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, October 9 

The Supreme Court today accepted a PIL petition for imposing environmental charges on commercial vehicles entering Delhi from neighbouring states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh as part of measures to check the rising air pollution in the national capital. Passenger buses, including mini-buses, and vehicles carrying essential commodities such as milk and vegetables and oil tankers would be exempt from the proposed charges. 

The Green Bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu said it would pass the order on October 12 after studying the proposals of senior advocate Harish Salve, who is the amicus curiae in the PIL filed by environmentalist MC Mehta in 1985, finalised in consultation with the Delhi Government.

Under the proposals, each commercial vehicle would have to pay Rs 700 or Rs 1,300, depending upon the load capacity, as “environment compensation charge” which would be utilised for anti-pollution measures in Delhi.

The Green Bench, which included Justices Arun Mishra and AK Goel, however, did not specify that it would stick to the suggested rates. 

Trucks plying between Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh would be asked to avoid entering the national capital unless they are Delhi-bound; the responsibility of ensuring this would be given to the respective state. 

Haryana would have to ensure that commercial vehicles bound for north and west-south used NH71 and 71A, instead of traversing through Delhi.

The apex court clarified that its order would be in place for three to four months on an experimental basis after which there would be a review in the light of feedback from stakeholders, including the neighbouring states of Delhi. Haryana’s Additional Advocate General Ajay Bansal told the Bench that the state government would face problems in implementing the proposal as it had recently entered into an agreement with a contractor for collection of toll for three years. At this, the Bench said the state was free to come to the SC if there was any problem in implementation. The Bench also clarified that its order on environment compensation charge would subsume similar orders, including that of the NGT passed earlier this week.