Delhi HC will not interfere in odd-even plying scheme

The high court on Monday refused to interfere with the Aam Aadmi Party government's odd-even vehicle plying policy to control rising air pollution, observing the restrictions under the scheme were only till Friday.

The court, however, directed the government to take into consideration the contents of the petitions, which had challenged the government's scheme, before taking any further action.

Transport Minister Gopal Rai welcomed the court's decision and said the government would re-implement the scheme as and when the need arose after January 15. "Since last Saturday, the samples from the permanent stations and also the samples which we have collected indicate that odd-even policy has played a role in bringing down the pollution levels. We hope that till January 15, we will get sufficient data. As announced earlier, that the first phase of this odd-even formula will run for 15 days after which we will analyse it and also seek suggestions from experts on how to implement it in the long run. We will implement it again as and when the need arises.

The Bench said though the implementation of the odd-even scheme might have caused hardship to a section of society, "power of judicial review cannot be extended to determine correctness of such a 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.

"It's neither within domain of the courts nor the scope of judicial review to embark upon an enquiry as to whether a particular public policy is wise or whether a better public policy can be evolved as suggested by petitioners," the Bench added.

It also observed that "law is well settled that on matters affecting policy, courts will not interfere unless the policy is unconstitutional or contrary to statutory provisions or arbitrary or irrational or in abuse of power. Since, the policy decisions are taken based on expert knowledge of person concerned, courts are normally not equipped to question the correctness of a policy decision," the Bench said.

On January 8, the high court had reserved its order on the pleas challenging the scheme after Delhi government defended its stand on the issue saying per capita toxic gas emission had declined due to lesser number of cars on city roads.

The high court had earlier questioned the impact of the odd-even operation on pollution and asked the AAP government to consider restricting the programme, slated for a fortnight till January 15, to a week.