In an attempt to reduce air pollution levels in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR), the Supreme Court today banned registration of diesel cars and SUV's with engine capacities of above 2,000cc in both the regions till March 31, 2016.
The move follows the National Green Tribunal’s recent blanket order to curb registration of all diesel cars in Delhi until the next hearing on January 6 and also restrict renewal of registration of such vehicles which are more than 10 years old. The tribunal had also asked central and state government to stop buying diesel cars in Delhi.
The NGT’s order was met with criticism from Delhi-based car dealers, who then filed a plea seeking an alteration of the order claiming that sales of diesel cars manufactured in 2015 should be allowed since the existing stock would become obsolete by next year.
Moreover, homegrown carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra also came out strongly in opposition of the move with its president (Auto and Farm sectors), Pawan Goenka, saying that singling out and stopping registrations of new diesel passenger vehicles in Delhi will not solve the rampant problem of pollution in the city.
Apart from curbing new car registrations, the Supreme Court has also restricted the entry of non Delhi-bound trucks registered before 2005 in the National Capital Region and hiked the pollution cess on commercial vehicles entering Delhi to somewhere between Rs 1,400 and Rs 2,600.
The ban will seriously affect vehicle manufacturers such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, as well as luxury carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Jaguar and BMW, which have products with diesel engines over the 2,000cc capacity.
In an official statement issued today, Mahindra acknowledged that the Supreme Court's order will affect sales of some of its products in the NCR region. "The vehicles affected represent about 2 percent of the Company's total monthly sales. The company is in the process of evaluating various options to work within the framework provided by the Honerable Supreme Court," the statement added.
Here is a list of all cars affected by the Supreme Court's judgement:
Nishant Parekh
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
