BS norms: SC takes note of report by Parliamentary panel

The Supreme Court on Wednesday took note of a recent report by a Parliamentary panel which stated that any leniency on the government's part in tackling with pollution would have a cascading effect on the health of the citizens.

The top court, which held that no Bharat Stage-IV vehicle would be sold or registered in India from April 1, 2020, referred to the August 7 this year report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee that said one out of three children in Delhi suffers from respiratory problems.

"This is almost twice as high as compared to the city of Kolkata or rural areas. We may note that the World Health Organisation's (WHO) database of more than 4,300 cities showed Indian cities of Gwalior, Allahabad, Raipur, Delhi, Ludhiana, Khanna, Varanasi and Patna as being among the most polluted in the world," a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said.

The bench, also comprising Justices S A Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, referred to various other documents and said that they clearly showed the deleterious effects of pollution on health of citizens of this country.

"The hazards of pollution and its ill effect on the health of the citizens especially children are not limited to the city of Delhi or the NCR (national capital region) of Delhi but affect all the citizens of the country," it said.

"When we compare BS-VI fuel with BS-IV fuel, there is a massive improvement in environmental terms. Once BS-VI emission norms are enforced, there will be a 68 per cent improvement in PM2.5. This is not a small change. It is a vast improvement and the faster it is brought, the better it is," the court said.

The bench said that it might not be practical to introduce BS-VI compliant vehicles region wise or city-wise as the problem of pollution was not limited to Delhi-NCR only but it was a problem which has engulfed the entire country especially the major cities.