No Objection On Putting Stickers To Identify Nature Of Vehicles, Says MoRTH

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) informed the Supreme Court that there was "no objection" to putting stickers on vehicles which would indicate its nature as to whether it was electric, hybrid, diesel or BS-VI compliant. A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta was apprised by Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni that there was no objection on the suggestion made in this regard by an advocate, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the air pollution matter.

"On stickers, the MoRTH has agreed," he told the bench and added that he has filed an affidavit in this regard. "Additional Solicitor General appearing on behalf of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) says that there is no objection to the suggestion made by amicus curiae about putting stickers on the vehicles," the bench noted in its order.

The bench asked advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court as an amicus curiae, to give a detailed submission in this regard and posted the matter for hearing on August 1.

On July 23, the amicus had handed over a note to the bench and had said that colour-coded stickers could be pasted on vehicles to give an indication of the nature of vehicle.

The amicus had said that such stickers, as used in Paris, would be more effective then having the "odd-even" vehicle rotation scheme in Delhi and it would also help in identifying older vehicles.

During the hearing today, the counsel appearing for the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said they would file an affidavit in response to the affidavit filed earlier by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) on sale and manufacture of BS-VI non-compliant vehicles in India.

The SIAM said that there were contradictions in the two affidavits filed by the government in this regard. The bench asked SIAM to file the affidavit by tomorrow.

The MoPNG, in its affidavit filed in the court, had said that it would be appropriate if manufacture of BS-IV vehicles was allowed till March 31, 2020 but no sale of non-compliant BS-VI vehicles should be permitted after April 1, 2020.

"If the sale is permitted from April 1, 2020 onwards, it will adversely affect the benefits of introduction of BS VI fuel," the MoPNG had said.

These issues had cropped up when the court was hearing a petition on air pollution in Delhi-national capital region (NCR).

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