Particle.news
Download on the App Store
28 ARTICLES
·
last wk.

Delhi Pauses Fuel Ban for Older Vehicles, Seeks Supreme Court Appeal for Uniform National Rules

The Delhi government halted its end-of-life vehicle refuelling directive after the lieutenant governor branded the age-based policy irrational; it will petition the Supreme Court for nationwide, emissions-focused standards.

Delhi CM Rekha Gupta said that her government is committed to providing relief to the capital's residents.
Image
Image
The traffic police on Tuesday checking ELVs as the drive begin. (Sunil Ghosh / Hindustan Times)

Overview

  • Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa told the CAQM that ANPR camera failures and data integration gaps made enforcing the fuel refusal impractical, triggering the suspension of the policy.
  • Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena condemned the rigid age-based ban as unfair to well-maintained vehicles and urged criteria such as retrofitment, emission test results and usage patterns instead of fixed thresholds.
  • Chief Minister Rekha Gupta pledged to present Delhi’s pollution control efforts to the Supreme Court and press for rules that apply uniformly across all states to avoid placing unequal burdens on the capital’s residents.
  • Dealers and financiers reported a sudden 40–50% plunge in used-car values and a surge in loan defaults as owners scrambled to reclaim impounded vehicles under an expedited process tied to emissions compliance.
  • The government is awaiting the CAQM’s formal response and is pressing for a transition away from blanket age limits toward a regionally consistent, emissions-based framework across the National Capital Region.