Luxury diesel cars to go: Supreme Court

New Delhi: Observing that rich people cannot go around in luxury cars and pollute the environment, the Supreme Court on Tuesday indicated it will pass orders on Wednesday to ban the registration of diesel luxury sedans and SUVs in Delhi to curb the city’s rapidly escalating air pollution.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices A.K. Sikri and R. Banumathi made it clear that to begin with, these luxury cars of over 2,000cc will not be allowed to be registered for three months. Noting that every citizen must contribute to bringing down pollution, the bench refused to buy the argument that the auto industry will collapse.

“When people’s lives are at stake, you are interested in your business of selling cars,” the CJI told senior counsel Dushyant Dave, who argued that a ban was not the correct solution.

Earlier, senior counsel and amicus curiae Harish Salve submitted a note to the court seeking urgent orders on a series of issues, saying that pollution levels in Delhi in the winter gets worse.