New Delhi, The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to stay the city administration's decision to bar entry of non-Delhi-registered vehicles that do not meet BS-VI emission standards into the capital from November 1 to January 31.
Declining to pass any interim order at this stage, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma issued notice on a plea by a Faridabad-based lawyer and listed it for hearing with a related matter on November 27.
Gurmukh Dass Kohli, represented by Anurag Saxena, assailed the Department of Environment and Forests' June 23 notification banning entry of non-Delhi-registered pre-BS-VI vehicles into the capital for three months.
Delhi needs a comprehensive plan, and not a piecemeal or knee-jerk response that separates one car from an identical car, the petitioner's counsel asserted.
The petition stated that during the period of the blanket ban, pre-BS-VI Delhi-registered vehicles are permitted to ply in the capital, amounting to a "differential treatment", and the move is unsustainable as it restricts movement of citizens residing in the integrated National Capital Region, including advocates and litigants.
The policy, the plea said, is disproportionate since the ban is not subject to the AQI readings on any given day, and has been imposed despite the notification itself providing for less restrictive measures, like year-round enforcement and double parking charges.
{{/usCountry}}The policy, the plea said, is disproportionate since the ban is not subject to the AQI readings on any given day, and has been imposed despite the notification itself providing for less restrictive measures, like year-round enforcement and double parking charges.
{{/usCountry}}"Under the Impugned Direction, from 01.11.2026 to 31.01.2027, on every day and at every hour, irrespective of the Air Quality Index on that day, the Petitioner will be barred from driving his duly registered Haryana vehicle into Delhi, while an otherwise comparable BS-IV vehicle registered in Delhi is outside the scope of the same restriction," the plea submitted.
"The classification turns on the place of registration and not on emission. Exhaust does not change with the registering authority; the differentia has no nexus with the object of controlling pollution and fails the test of Article 14," it contended.
The petition also argued that the revised Graded Response Action Plan issued by the Commission for Air Quality Management in September does not provide for such a restriction, and the decision is not based on any scientific assessment.
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