M C MEHTA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On 28th July, 1998 this Court had directed, inter alia, that the entire fleet of city buses which are operating in Delhi be converted to single fuel CNG mode by 31st March, 2001. Despite this direction, given nearly 3 years ago, Government of Delhi's response has been extremely tardy, to say the least. No serious attention was paid to the order of the Court by the Administration and it appears that even the private operators got encouraged by this tardy response of the State Administration and they also did not take appropriate steps to comply with the order of the Court dated 28th July, 1998. It was after taking note of the submissions made at the bar, to mitigate to whatever extent possible, the hardship which the commuter public would have been put to, particularly the school going children, that on 26th March, 2001 certain relaxations were given by this Court. It was directed, inter alia, that all those vehicle owners, who have taken effective steps or shall take so by 31st March, 2001, for the purpose of either acquiring new buses which would operate on CNG fuel mode or to convert their existing buses to operate on CNG fuel mode could be granted permits/authorisations, after filing proper affidavits/undertakings in this Court, to ply their existing vehicles not more than eight years old, equal in number, till 30th September, 2001. This dispensation was also extended to other commercial vehicles which were required to switch over to CNG fuel mode. After our order dated 26th March, 2001, there was a great rush to file affidavits/undertakings in this Court. The Registry of this Court received more than 27,000 affidavits/undertakings within about three days and with a view to cope with the rush, the officials of the Registry worked on those days till about midnight.

(2.) On 26th March, 2001, the Principal Secretary (Transport) Shri Ashok Pradhan had been authorised to issue permits/authorisations to all eligible transporters, in accordance with the stipulations contained in the order, to be operative till 30th September, 2001. On an application made by Delhi Administration on 30-3-2001, to permit assistance of four other officers to Mr. Pradhan, to issue the permits/authorisations, on the evening of 30th March, 2001 at an emergent sitting of the Court, necessary orders were made by us granting the prayer of the Administration to facilitate it to discharge its obligations.

(3.) Yesterday (3-4-2001) an application was filed (I.A. No. 107/2001) on behalf of Delhi Administration. At that time Mr. Kirit N. Raval, learned Addl. Solicitor General, who appeared both for the Delhi Administration and the Union of India, submitted that Delhi Administration was taking all steps to verify the affidavits/undertakings to issue necessary permits/authorisation, after proper satisfaction, but that it was a time consuming process. It is stated in the application that in the case of some autorickshaws, certain irregularities have also been noticed which rquire more caution and attention being paid before issuance of permits/authorisations to those vehicles to ply till 30th September, 2001. A prayer was accordingly made in the application to permit the plying of all such buses and other commercial vehicles, which are not more than 8 years old, where their owners had filed affidavit/undertakings indicating that they had placed firm orders for conversion to CNG or other clean fuel mode and had also filed applications in the prescribed form before the Transport Department for a period of 7 days, during which authorisations/permits could be prepared and issued.