Apex Court lifts ban on diesel SUVs in Delhi-NCR
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Friday lifted its order on banning registration of diesel-run SUVs and high-end cars with engine capacity of 2000 CC and above in Delhi and NCR.The apex court has said that such vehicles can be allowed to be registered again on payment of one percent of ex-showroom price as environment tax.
Earlier, on June 29, the court had said it was open to lifting the ban on registration of heavy diesel vehicles in Delhi and NCR subject to a levy of one-time environment compensation cess. Unveiling a slew of measures to curb alarming pollution level in Delhi and NCR, the apex court had on December 16 last year banned registration of diesel-run sports utility vehicles and high-end private cars with engine capacity of 2000 CC and above till March 31. Later, the ban on registration was extended till further orders.
Automobile giants like Mercedes, Toyota, Mahindra and General Motors had moved the apex court for modification of the order by which registration of their high-end diesel vehicles was barred in Delhi and NCR. While continuing with the status-quo on registration of high-end diesel vehicles, the court had asked the big car makers not to treat the PIL as an “adversarial litigation” but “in public interest”.
