Delhi High Court Monday refused to stay the state govt’s move to bar entry

New Delhi: Delhi High Court Monday refused to stay the state govt’s move to bar entry of non-Delhi-registered vehicles that do not meet BS-VI emission standards into the capital from Nov 1 to Jan 31.

Declining to pass any interim order at this stage, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma issued notice on a plea by a Faridabad-based lawyer and listed it for hearing with a related matter on Nov 27. Gurmukh Dass Kohli, represented by advocates Anurag Saxena and Sonica Ghosh, assailed Department of Environment and Forests’ June 23 notification banning the entry of non-Delhi-registered pre-BS-VI vehicles into the capital for three months.

Exhaust does not change with the registering authority; the differentia has no nexus with the object of controlling pollution and fails the test of Article 14,” it contended. You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Delhi | Silver Rate in Delhi | Bank Holidays in Delhi | Public Holidays in Delhi | Delhi AQI | Weather in Delhi | Petrol Price in Delhi | Diesel Price in Delhi | CNG Price in Delhi | LPG Price in Delhi Stay updated with the latest Delhi news.

The plea stated that during the period of the blanket ban, pre-BS-VI Delhi-registered vehicles are permitted to ply in the capital, amounting to a “differential treatment”, and the move is unsustainable as it restricts movement of citizens residing in the integrated National Capital Region, including advocates and litigants. The policy, the plea said, is disproportionate since the ban is not subject to the AQI readings on any given day, and has been imposed despite the notification itself providing for less restrictive measures, like year-round enforcement and double parking charges. “Under the Impugned Direction, from 01.11.2026 to 31.01.2027, on every day and at every hour, irrespective of the Air Quality Index on that day, the petitioner will be barred from driving his duly registered Haryana vehicle into Delhi, while an otherwise comparable BS-IV vehicle registered in Delhi is outside the scope of the same restriction,” the plea submitted.

Delhi needs a comprehensive plan, and not a piecemeal or knee-jerk response that separates one car from an identical car, the petitioner’s counsel argued, questioning the rationale behind exempting Delhi-registered numbers from the ban, terming it arbitrary. “The classification turns on the place of registration and not on emission. The petition also argued that the revised Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) issued by Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in Sept does not provide for such a restriction, and the decision is not based on any scientific assessment. Download the TOI App.