LexM.C.MEITTA versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.
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A M.C.MEITTA )... ' v. UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. MARCH 26, 2001 B [DR. A.S. ANAND, CJ, B.N. KIRPAL AND V.N. KHARE, JJ.] Environmental law-Vechicular Pollution-Order dn!ed 28th July 1998 ,. passed by Supreme Court-Directions issued under order-Entire city bus fleet should be steadily converted to a single fuel mode of CNG by 31.3.2001- c No eight year old buses should ply except on CNG or other clean fuel after [st April 2000-Neither Government nor bus operators took diligent steps to comply with Court's order-Such inaction deprecated-Applications filed for extension of time-Held a blanket extention of time cannot be given-Order passed by Court should not'be treated lightly-Compliance of order should be D in letter and spirit-However, in public interest and with a view to mitigate sufferings of commuter public and school children some relaxations and exemptions given. Environmental law-Low sulphur diesel-Whether can be regarded as 'clean fuel'-Direction to Bhure lal Committee to examine this question- ' E Parties should submit their representation ta committee-Committee to submit " its report within one month to Supreme Court. CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition (C) No. 13029 of 1985. F (Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.) H.N. Salve, Solicitor General, (A.C.), R.N. Trivedi, K.N. Rawal, Ad- ..... ditional Solicitor Generals, M.L. Verma, Raju Ramachandran, F.S. Nariman, T.R. Andhyrujina, GopaJ Subramanium, Shanti Bhushan, Salman Khurshid, G V.R. Reddy, K.K. VenugopaJ, S. BaJakrishnan, U.U. LaJit, (A.C.), Ms. Aprajita Singh, Nikhil Sakhardande, (M.C. Mehta)-in-person, Ms. A. Subhashini, H.S. Anand, Percy Gandhi, RN. Karanjawala, Mrs. Nandini Gore, Ms. Julie Buragohain, Manik Karanjawala, L.K. Pandey, Rajiv Sharma, GopaJ Jain, Ms. • Ruby Singh Ahuja, Sandeep Puri, Rajesh Kumar, A. Samad, Rakesh Kumar, Vinod Kumar, V.B. Saharya, Sri Narain, Ms. Anjali, Er. Anil Kumar Mittal, H S. Wasim, A. Qadri, A.D.N. Rao, Bipul Kumar, D.S. Mehra, Ms. Suvira LaJ, 698 MjC. MEHTA v. U.0.1. 699 Mrs. Niranjana Singh, Anil Katiyar, A.D.N. Rao, C. Radhakrishna, B. V. Bairam Das, Prashant Bhushan, Sanjeev Kapoor, Sanjay Pathak, Vijay Panjwani, Sheil Sethi, R.C. Verma, Vivek Vishnoi, Ms. Kiran Kapoor, Rakesh K. Khanna, Ms. Pallavi Choudhary, Surya Kant, Sushi! Dutta Salwan, Piyush Sharma, Pramod Dayal, Sunil Gupta, Jatin Zaveri, Harish J. Jhaveri, HX. Puri, S.K. Puri, Rajesh Srivastava, Ujjwal Banerjee, Ms. Rani Chhabra, Ms. Meenaxi, M.S. Bakshi, Subrarnonium Prasad, S.N. Jha, Ms. Astha Tyagi, P.K. Sharma, Divyang K. Chhaya, Abhijat P. Medh, Avimukt Par, Ms. Kum Kum Sen, Ms. lndu Malhotra, Ms. Shyel Trehan, Raj Shekhar Rao, R.K. Maheshwari and Anil Srivastava for the appearing parties. The following Order of the Court was delivered : With a view to check rapid deterioration of air quality in Delhi, which was becoming a health hazard besides being an environmental enemy certain directions have been issued by this Court from time to time in the main Writ Petition. On 28th July, 1998, some further directions were issued fixing a time schedule after taking note of the recommendations made by the Bhure Lal Committee. One of the important directions [direction (g)] issued on that date was to the effect that the entire 'city bus fleet was to be steadily converted to a single fuel mode of CNG by 31.3.2001'. Another direction [direction (f)] was to the effect that 'no eight year old buses were to ply except on CNG or other clean fuel after !st April, 2000'. Unfortunately, neither the Governmental authorities nor private bus operators acted seriously or diligently in taking steps for the purposes of complying with the aforesaid directions and this was inspite of the fact that we had issued a strong caution to all concerned in our order dated 28th July, 1998 that failure to comply with the aforesaid directions could render the concerned punishable for committing Contempt of Court. A number of applications have now been filed and requests made at the bar seeking extension of deadline to convert the entire city bus fleet to single fuel mode of CNG beyond 31st March, 2001. The Court has, on each date of bearing, been making it abundantly clear that the question of allowing buses, other than those which run on CNG to ply after 31st March, 2001 did not arise. The Court made it clear to the administration as also to all other concerned that they had failed to show
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