NEW DELHI: With air pollution rising to dangerous levels in India which is home to twenty of the world’s most polluted cities, the Supreme Court on Friday asked why battery and solar energy-run vehicles were not being manufactured in the country on a large scale to replace petrol/diesel-run cars.

The apex court which has been monitoring the pollution problem in the national capital for more than three decades, said many countries were switching over to battery/solar energy-run vehicles and the same could be replicated in India, which could go a long way in addressing the issue. The court asked the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers ( SIAM ) to be innovative in its approach to adopt new technology for the benefits of the citizens.

“Around the world, cars are being run on battery and solar energy. Why cannot it be done here? If you want to make this country move forward, you have to be innovative.... You have to make an extra effort. It is for the people’s cause,” a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta told the automobile association.

An advocate, appearing for the association, told the bench that it was making an all-out effort to meet the deadline of April 1, 2020 for manufacturing of BS-VI compliant vehicles and pleaded the bench that the time-line should not be advanced as it would be technically impossible to comply with.

Senior advocate Harish Salve and lawyer Aparajita Singh, who are assisting the court as amicus curiae, told the bench that diesel vehicles had been banned in many cities in other countries and the same measure should be adopted in Delhi to curb vehicular pollution. They even suggested that some compensatory amount should be imposed on petrol and diesel-run vehicles in NCR which could be used for pollution-control measures.

Salve suggested review of the functioning of the existing coal-based power plants in NCR and said they should be directed to switch over to natural gas in a time-bound manner. He said import of polluting fuels—pet coke and furnace oil—should be banned.

“Even as the country is reeling under a public health emergency caused by toxic air, we continue to expand our use of dirtier sources of energy. Therefore, the preferred source of energy today in order of priority is pet coke, furnace oil and its variants. Worse, the coal that is used in power plants does not even have pollution control devices. In this scenario, it is inconceivable to attain air quality of any breathable standard,” he said.

The court directed the Centre to respond to these suggestions within two weeks. Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni informed the court that use of pet coke and furnace oil had been banned in Delhi’s adjoining states—Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.

The court, however, asked all state governments to consider banning the polluting fuels. “We may note that pollution caused by pet coke and furnace oil is not a problem confined only to the NCR region but appears to be a problem faced by almost all the states and union territories in the country. For the present, we do not propose to give any direction to any other state and union territory but we request all the state governments and union territories to consider taking similar measures as have been taken by the Centre,” the bench said.

