The hearing of the contentious ban on the use of older petrol and diesel vehicles in the National Capital Region (NCR) will go to the Supreme Court of India on Monday. The hearing follows the Delhi government, which opposed a blanket ban on diesel cars older than 10 years and petrol cars older than 15 years, saying the policy is neither scientifically sound nor does it deal with current emission standards such as Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI).
One of the benches headed by Chief Justice Gavai of India and Justice K Vinod Chandran will look into the question of whether cars that are within the newer emission norms should continue to have a restriction on end-of-life that is based solely on age. The Delhi government has sought thorough research by the Centre and the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to know whether an age-based ban will be better than emission-based criteria to reduce pollution.
The ban itself has its roots in a 2015 National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, which sought that vehicles above the age of 10 years in the case of diesel and 15 years in the case of petrol be banned in terms of plying in the streets as well as being parked in the streets. This was an order that was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 2018 with reference to a catastrophic state of air pollution in Delhi-NCR as a health emergency. Afterwards, the CAQM declared that the gas stations will cease to provide petrol and diesel to any of such vehicles as of July 1st 2025.
Nevertheless, when the Delhi government started the implementation of the “No Fuel for Old Vehicles” policy on July 1, 2025, it had to stop it after two days, in the face of violent citizen protests and the inability of its planned procedures. The government acknowledged their problems in the identification of vehicles and infrastructure preparedness. Before the hearing of the Supreme Court, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa pointed out that pollution had to be measured based on vehicle condition and use instead of the age factor, and it had to be done more sensitively.
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