Spl hearing on Saturday, SC declines govt's plea to defer it

The Supreme Court today declined Centre's request to defer tomorrow's scheduled full-fledged hearing on pollution issues including the plea of automobile giants like Mercedes, Toyota, Mahindra and General Motors that their high-end diesel cars with engine capacity of 2000 CC and above be allowed to be registered in National Capital Region.
The interim order banning registration of diesel-run vehicles with engine capacity of 2000 CC and above is in force till April 30.
A Bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice U U Lalit expressed its displeasure when Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar sought postponement of hearing on the ground that none of the law officers would be available tomorrow as they are going for a conference in Cuttack in Odisha.

"We have fixed the hearing on a non-working day and all the parties had agreed. We will take it up tomorrow. Ask one of your law officers to be here tomorrow," the bench said while refusing to put the matter for hearing on some other Saturday.
The Bench told the Solicitor General that Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, who was present in the courtroom, be asked to appear tomorrow.
"One or two law officers can be present," the bench said.

The Solicitor General has said there was a need for adjourning tomorrow's hearing as all law officers would be participating in a conference of the Supreme Court Middle Income Group Legal Aid Society on the theme, "Providing legal Aid to Persons Belonging to Middle Income Group".

The bench said the date for tomorrow was fixed after the judges concerned cancelled their prior enagagements.
"We had fixed it as many people wanted the hearing and they had agreed for hearing on a Saturday," the bench said while not accepting the plea that more than one advocate would be required as several ministries like industry and others are involved in it as issues relate to policy matters.
Besides the CJI, the bench would comprise Justices A K
Sikri and R Banumathi.
While extending deadline in the last hearing for converting diesel-run taxis into CNG and continuing with the status-quo on registration of high-end diesel vehicles, the bench had asked the big car makers not to treat the PIL as an "adversarial litigation" and "treat it in public interest".

While continuing with the ban on registration of diesel-run vehicles of 2000 CC and above, the bench had said, "We are conscious of the fact that the order is going to affect the companies, market and the economy."
When the arguments were made by senior advocates like Gopal Subramaniam, C A Sundaram, P Chidambaram and others on behalf of automobile majors, the bench had said, "you have two choices, first to continue with the ban for six months or secondly, we impose the compensation charge on purchasers of these diesel vehicles".
In a bid to tackle rising pollution level in the capital, the court, on December 16, had also restricted the entry of commercial vehicles into Delhi from NH-8 which connects Jaipur to Delhi and NH-1 that connects the states of Punjab, Haryana and other northern States to Delhi via Kundli border.

The bench had also directed the Centre, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, National Highways Authority of India and MCD to implement its directions and ensure that no inconvenience is caused to the public. It had also sought a report.
Prior to this, the court had barred registration of diesel-run sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and high-end private cars with engine capacity of 2000 CC and above in Delhi and National Capital Region till March 31, 2016.
The court also directed 100 per cent hike in Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) being levied on light and heavy commercial vehicles entering Delhi.
It had directed that "all taxis including those operating under aggregators like OLA and UBER in the NCT of Delhi, plying under city permits shall move to CNG not later than March one, 2016."

It, however, had exempted passenger vehicles, ambulances and vehicles carrying essential commodities like food stuffs and oil tankers for Delhi from paying the ECC.
The court was hearing various pleas including a 1984 PIL filed by environmentalist M C Mehta on the issue.