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

Citation: [1998] SUPP. 2 S.C.R. 24 · Decided: 22-09-1998 · 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. 
SEPTEMBER 22, I 998 
B 
[DR. A.S. ANAND, B.N. KIRPAL AND V.N. KHARE, JJ.] 
Environmental Law : 
Air pollution-Vehicular pollution-National Capital Ter;itory of 
C Delhi-Phasing out and banning old commercial/transport vehic/es-
Directions given by Supreme Court-Further, all commercial/transport 
vehicles which are being plied without payment of road tax or registration 
shall not be allowed to ply-Transport Department and Traffic Department 
of Delhi Police would submit compliance report. 
D 
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: Writ Petition (C) No. 13029 
of 1985. 
(Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India). 
Santosh Hegde, Solicitor General, Altaf Ahmed, Additional Solicitor 
E General, Harish N. Salve (AC), P.P. Rao, (Uday Umesh Lalit) (AC), (Ms. Priya 
Kumar) for Prashant Bhushan, Ms. Binu Tamta, S.W.A. Qadri, Ms. Anees 
Ahmed, Mrs. Anil Katiyar, Mrs. Indra Sawhney, Ms. Kanupriya Mittal, Harish 
Chandra, Arvind K. Sharma, Mrs. Anubha Jain, Sushi! Kr. Jain, Pradeep 
Aggarwal, A.P. Dhamija, Umesh Bohare, A. Mishra, L.P. Singh, Shri Narain, 
Sandeer Narain, Pradeep K. Bakshi, Ashok Mathur, R. Sasiprabhu, R.K. 
F Maheshwari, V.B. Saharya, P. Parmeswaran, Ranjit Kumar, Ejaz Maqbool, 
Hardeep Singh Anand, Vijay Panjwani, R.P. Gupta, Vineet Kumar, Anis Ahmed 
Khan, L.K. Pandey, S.B. Upadhyay, S.R. Setia, Sanfay Parikh and D.S. Mehra 
for the Appearing parties. 
G 
The following Order of the Court was delivered : 
. 
With a view to tackle problems arising out of chaotic traffic conditions 
and vehicular pollution and not being satisfied with the steps taken by the 
concerned authorities in addressing themselves to those problems, this Court 
issued certl\in directions accepting the report of Bhure Lal Committee, as it 
H was felt by the Court that any further delay in the performance of its duty 
24 
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M.C. MEHTA v. U.0.1. 
25 
by the Administration could not be permitted. At this stage, we are concerned A 
only with the direction issued by this Court to the effect that all commercial 
vehicles which are more than 15 years old shall not be permitted to ply in the 
National Capital Territory of Delhi with effect from 2nd October 1998. 
An affidavit has been filed by Shri S. Raghunathan, Principal Secretafy- B 
cum-Commissioner Transport, Government of National Capital Territory of 
Delhi on 28th August, 1998. The learned Solicitor General appearing for the 
Administration submits that phasing out and banning all commercial vehicles 
which are more than 15 years old by October 2, 1998 would lead to great 
hardship to the owners of those vehicles in particular and to the general c 
public which makes use of those vehicles in general. It is, therefore, submitted 
by him that we may relax the rigour of the order regarding banning of 15 years 
old commercial/transport vehicles with effect from 2nd October 1998 and he 
_assures the Court that the Administration itself is keen to phase out all such 
vehicles gradually to ease the pollution level in the city. It is submitted that 
the ban order may be applied in phases. 
D 
A chart has been filed by the learned Solicitor General giving a break 
up of the count of the number of commercial/transport vehicles which have 
paid road tax atleast once after 1st April, 1997 yearwise. According to that 
chart we find that the r:umber of commercial/transport vehicles are:-
E 
(a) More than 25 years old. 
5,718 
(b) Between 24 and 25 years old 
954 
(c) Between 23 and 24 years old 
635 
F 
(d) Between 22 and 23 years old 
524 
(e) Between 21 and 22 years old 
748 
(f) Between 20 and 21 years old 
770 
G 
Thus, the total number of vehicles which are more than 20 years old are 
9,349. These vehicles are all commercial vehicles which have been registered 
and on which road tax has been paid. 
The count of vehicles which are more than 15 years but less than 20 
years old are :-
H 
• 
• 
26 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1998] SUPP. 2 S.C.R. 
A 
(a) Between 17 to 19 years 
3,200 
(b) Between 15 to 16 years 
4,962 
To mitigate the hardship, as pointed out by learned Solicitor General 
and taking note of the assurance given by him, we modify our previous order 
B and direct that: 
c 
(a) all commercial/transport vehicles which are more than 20 years old 
(9,349) shall be phased out and not permitted to ply in the National Capital 
Territory Delhi after 2nd October, 1998; 
(b) all such commercial/transport vehicles which are 17 to 19 years old 
(3,200) sha
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