Supreme Court raps govt for opposing use of remote sensing tech

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday took dim view of the Delhi government having reservation on going ahead of remote sensing system for monitoring on road emission of vehicles as it squeezed the timeline for putting in place the rules and their notification from proposed ten and a half month to six and a half month.

The timeline that was squeezed today by the court was proposed by the ministry of road transport and highways.

“It is in the larger interest. It is because of the court and not because of your initiative,” a bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Deepak Gupta said as city government’s lawyer wanted to apprise the court about some “observations” of the Delhi government. “Don’t you owe to the people that their children should live in a green atmosphere”, Justice Gupta asked the Delhi government lawyer and further said, “We care not doing any harm.”  

Apparently displeased with the response of government, “This is not the way a welfare state should act. I don’t know why instead of co-operation, you are resisting.”

The court’s observation came as lawyer appearing for the government sought to draw attention of the court to the size of the sample that was relied upon for introducing the technology for mentoring on road emission of vehicles.

The court was told that while two-wheelers and three-wheelers constitute 68 per centof the vehicles on Delhi roads, but the sample that was taken was just 0.7 per cent of them,

The court was considering the response from the ministry of road transport and highways to 99th report of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) recommending the remote sensing programme for monitoring of on road emission of vehicles.

The ministry of road transport and highways had proposed ten and a half month for framing of rules under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989 but on the request of amicus curiae and senior counsel Aparajta Singh the court squeezed it to six and a half month.

In the last hearing of the matter on July 27, 2019, the court was told that the remote sensing monitoring of on road emission of vehicles was already in place in Kolkata.

The MORTH in its affidavit has said that considering the “diversity and extensiveness” of the country, the system of remote sensing programme for monitoring on road emission of vehicles would be possible only on a limited stretches.

Reposing faith in the existing system of pollution checking of vehicles, the ministry has said that the current programme of pollution check from existing PUC centres of the vehicles in a stationary state is suitable and for the time being remains can essential part of the pollution management.