M.C. MEHTA versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.

Citation: [1998] 3 S.C.R. 918 · Decided: 28-07-1998 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: A.S. ANAND, B.N. KIRPAL, V.N. KHARE · Disposal: Directions issued

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Judgment (excerpt)

A 
M.C. MEHTA 
v. 
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. 
JULY 28, 1998 
B 
[DR. A.S. ANAND, B.N. KIRPAL AND V.N. KHARE, JJ.] 
Environmental Pollution: 
Vehicular pollution in Delhi-Directions given by Supreme Court earlier 
C to arrest and control vehicular pollution-Implementation of-Report of 
Bhure Lal Committee giving time frame for immediate improvement of air 
quality-Approved-Further directions given by Court to arrest the growing 
pollution of air and to implement Bhure Lal Committee Report-Compliance 
report to be filed in the Court. 
D 
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition (C) No. 13029 of 
1986 Etc. 
Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India. 
Altaf Ahmed, Additional Solicitor General, Harish N. Salve, (A.C.), P.P. 
E Malhotra, Shanti Bhushan, K. Parasaran, Uday Umesh Lalit, Manoj Prasad, 
Kailash Vasdev, Mrs. Indira Sawhney, Arvind K. Sharma, Mrs. Anubha Jain, 
Mrs. K.P. Mittal, Mrs.Niranjana Singh, Wasim A. Quadari, Mrs. Anil Katiyar, 
Ms. Smitha Inna, D.S. Mehra, Pramod B.Agarwala, Ms. Praveena Gautam, 
Aruneshwar Gupta, Srilok Nath Rath, Shri Narain, Sandeep Narain, Suishil 
F Kumar Jain, A.P. Dhamija, Ms. Kiran, Ms. Arpita Roy Choudhary, Sanjay 
Katayal,Vineet Kumar, (Rajeev Dutta) (NP), (M.A. Chinnaswamy,) (NP), R.P. 
Gupta, R. Sasiprabhu, R.K. Maheshwari, Ashok Mathur, Ranjit Kumar, Ejaz 
Maqbool, Hardeep Singh Anand, Vijay Panjwani, Anis Ahmed Khan, L.K. 
Pandey, S.B. Upadhyay, S.R. Setia, Sanjay Parikh, Mahabir Singh and Dinesh 
Kumar Garg for the appearing Parties. 
G 
The following Order of the Court was delivered : 
Realising the urgency and importance of protection and improvement of 
the environment, this Court has given direction from time to time and impressed 
upon the authorities to take urgent steps to tackle the acute problem of 
H vehicular pollution in Delhi. Assurances have been held out to the Court 
918 
'"' 
M.C. MEHTA v. U.0.1. 
919 
through various affidavits filed by the competent officers that effective steps A 
shall be taken in a phased manner within a specified time span. Inspite of the 
· matter having engaged the attention of this Court for a long time and lengthy 
debates on each hearing, precious little appear to have been done by the 
State Administration to check and control the vehicular pollution. We are 
rather distressed at this apathy of the State Administration, wherr according B 
to the White Paper published by the Government of India, tJ{~ vehicular 
pollution contributes 70% of the air pollution as compared to 20% in 1970. 
In the White Paper published by the Government of India, iyaead line of I st 
April, 1998 had been proposed for implementation of major a,eiions. No concrete 
steps have however, been taken till date in spite of tho/'1'ssurances held out 
in the affidavit dated November 18, 1996. 
I 
C 
/ 
We find from the report submitted by the Authority appointed vide 
Gazette Notification dated 29th January, 1998 that none of the major actions, 
as proposed, has been implemented. The Authority headed by Shri Shure Lal 
has also proposed certain measures for immediate improvement of air quality 
and has given a time frame but for the time being we are not engaging our D 
attention to that time frame. We are, however, of the view that to arrest the 
growing pollution of air certain steps need to be taken immediately We, 
therefore, direct:-
f. Implementation of directions to restrict plying of commercial vehicles 
including taxis, which are 15 years old, by 2nd October, I 998. 
E 
2. Restriction on plying of goods vehicles during the day time shall 
be strictly enforced by I 5th August, I 998. 
3. Expansion of pre-mixed oil dispensors (petrol and 2T oil) shall be 
undertaken by 31st December, 1998. 
F 
4. Ban on supply of loose 2T oils at petrol stations and service 
garages shall be enforced by 3 I st December, I 998. 
The Committee headed by Shri Shure Lal has also proposed the following 
measures within the time frame in its action taken report filed in the Court. G 
Time frame. 
(A) Augmentation of public transport 
(state carriage) to 10,000 buses. 
(B) Elimination ofleaded petrol from NCT Delhi 
1.42001 
1.9.1998 
H 
920 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[1998] 3 S.C.R. 
A 
as proposed by the Authority and agreed to 
"1'· 
by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. 
(C) Supply of only pre-mix petrol in all petrol 
31.12.1998 
filling stations to two-stroke engine vehicles. 
B 
(D) Replacement of all pre 1990 autos and taxis 
31.32000 
with new vehicles on cle

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