New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday imposed an 'Environment Compensation Charge' (ECC) on commercial vehicles entering Delhi, in addition to the toll tax, from November 1 for four months on a trial basis, in a bid to check high pollution levels in the city.
The charges would be payable at the rates of Rs 700 for light duty vehicles and two-axle vehicles and Rs 1,300 for three-axle and above.
The apex court directed the Delhi Government to issue appropriate notification in this regard as it made clear that these charges would be operative for four months from November 1 till February 29, 2016 on an "experimental basis". Nullifying the October 7 order of the National Green Tribunal on the same issue, the apex court made it clear that "this order will override any order to the contrary by any authority."
To review the mechanism, the bench posted the matter for further consideration in the third week of February. "Amicus curiae Harish Salve, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar and Dushyant Dave, senior counsel appearing for the Government of NCT Delhi have jointly suggested that the environment compensation charge ought to be imposed by the Delhi government...”
"On due consideration, we do not see any reason not to accept the above suggestion. Accordingly, we approve the suggested arrangements," a bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu said.
The bench, which also included justices Arun Mishra and Adarsh Kumar Goel, however, said that passenger buses, vehicles carrying essential commodities, food articles and ambulances would be exempted from paying the 'environment compensation charge'.
"The charge will be collected by the toll operators without any deduction and handed over to the Delhi Government on every Friday. The Delhi Government shall furnish accounts of the receipts and the expenditure incurred to Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control)) Authority and to this Court each quarter," the bench said.
Taking note of Centre for Science and Environment study that about 23 per cent of the commercial vehicles and 40-60 per cent of the heavy trucks entering the city were not destined for Delhi, the court said it was necessary to impose the charges, along with the MCD toll, to equalize the difference in cost in travelling through alternative routes.
The apex court said vehicles destined for places other than Delhi shall be diverted to take alternate route via NH-71A and NH-71, connecting Rewari to Panipat via Jhajjar and Rohtak. "The Governments of UP, Haryana and Rajasthan will provide large size bill boards at the exit points towards the alternative highways to inform commercial traffic of the diversions.”
"The said governments will take steps to ensure that commercial traffic having destination other than Delhi use alternative routes. The said governments will ensure that in the course of implementation of this order, traffic jams and other inconvenience to the public is avoided," the court said.
The apex court also concurred with the findings of the CSE report, which had said that commercial vehicles entering Delhi spew close to 30 per cent of the total particulate load and 22 per cent of the total nitrogen oxide load from the transport sector.
It directed Delhi government to issue advertisements to inform commercial traffic of the bypass routes and about the imposition of the environment charge to be paid for entering Delhi. "The toll collectors will put in place Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system at their own cost at nine main entry points in the city by November 30 and by January 31, 2016 at all the remaining 118 entry points to the city, failing which the contractors will be treated as being in breach of their obligation.”
"The RFID data will be supplied to the MCD and Transport Department of the Government of NCT Delhi. The NCT Government will install its own CCTV cameras at nine entry points and also organise surprise visits to oversee the collection of ECC and other necessary arrangements," the bench said.
Salve, the amicus curiae in a 1985 PIL filed by environmentalist M C Mehta, had sought directions to the Centre, Delhi Government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to ensure "commercial vehicles entering the city are required to pay a sum of not less than Rs 600 (for LCV and 2-axle) and not less than Rs 1200 (for 3-axle and above).
He had also sought a direction that "all collection of toll for vehicles entering Delhi be switched to the Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) system of collection of toll on and from the 1st of December 2015."
The National Green Tribunal, on October 7, had acted tough on rising vehicular pollution in the national capital and directed all commercial vehicles entering Delhi to pay environmental compensation charge, in addition to toll tax.
The green panel had ordered that the compensation would be payable at the rates of Rs 700 for two-axle vehicles, Rs 1,000 for three-axle and Rs 500 for four-axle and above. The apex court's decision now overrides this order of the NGT.
