NEW DELHI: The Arvind Kejriwal government’s odd-even scheme will continue till January 15 as planned, the Delhi High Court ruled on Monday. The court said it would not interfere with the notification that allows only cars with odd numbered licensed plates on Delhi’s roads on odd dates and those with even numbered plates on the other days till Friday.
The court, however, asked the Delhi government to deliberate on concerns of the petitions, which had challenged the scheme, before taking any further course of action.
Hailing the order, transport minister Gopal Rai claimed that the first phase of the car rationing scheme has been a success. He said, “The first phase till January 15 is to calculate the pollution levels. There is no traffic jam because of odd-even scheme. The pollution levels have gone down considerably.”
Earlier in the day, a two-judge bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath said, though the implementation of the scheme may have caused hardship to a section of society, “power of judicial review cannot be extended to determine correctness of such policy decision”.
“Keeping in view that restrictions under notification are only for a limited period of 15 days and it is stated that the scheme has been enforced as a pilot project to ascertain the reduction, if any, of pollution levels, we are of the view that interference by this court is not warranted,” it said.
The court also said in its 12-page order, “Implementation may have caused hardship to a section of the society, however, the power of judicial review cannot be extended to determine the correctness of such policy decision or to find out whether there could be more appropriate or better alternatives.”
Change is in the air?
- Environment-alists have welcomed the restrictions, but say they are unlikely to make a dramatic difference in the short term.
- The US embassy in Delhi put PM2.5 levels at 97 on Monday afternoon — lower than earlier in the day, but still nearly four times World Health Organisation safe limit of 25.
- Delhi’s air quality traditionally worsens in winter as the cooler air traps pollutants and people start lighting fires.
