The Supreme Court on Wednesday indicated that it will consider lifting the ban on registration of SUVs and diesel cars with engine capacity of 2000 CC and may just imposing a one- time environment compensation cess on the showroom value of the vehuicles.
Giving this indication, a three-judge bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices A.K. Sikri and R. Banumathi observed “We are inclined to allow registration. We are open to the registration subject to some kind of one-time cess.” The court in December last had imposed the ban on registration until further orders.
Appearing for Mercedes, Mahindra, General Motors and Toyota car manufacturers, senior counsel Gopal Subramanium and Gopal Jain urged the court to reconsider lifting the ban and said they were willing to pay a one time cess. The CJI told the counsel “it is not that we are away from realities of life. We ourselves are using diesel vehicles. You suggest a road map for registration indicating the quantum of cess, testing facilities available, penalty for not meeting standards etc and we will consider lifting the ban. People who purchase diesel vehicles of 2000 cc and above must know that they are polluting and must pay a price for it.”
The CJI also pointed out that diesel cars are not meeting the Euro-IV norms and wondered whether there was any agency testing whether the prescribed emission standards had been complied with or not.
Mr Subramanium said that at present, Euro-IV emission norms are in place for vehicles and for switching to more stricter emission norms of EURO-VI, there was the need for advance fuel which is presently unavailable. The bench has sought reports with regard to the research works carried out on the impact of Euro-IV norms on vehicular emission. The bench directed the matter for further hearing on July 4.
