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Put onus of affixing colour-coded stickers on vehicle owners, says Supreme Court

ByAbraham Thomas
Jan 15, 2025 09:39 PM IST

Only 30% of vehicles registered before April 1, 2019, in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have affixed the colour-coded stickers

NEW DELHI: The onus of affixing colour-coded stickers on vehicles (blue for petrol and CNG and orange for diesel) in the national capital region (NCR) including Delhi should be on the vehicle owners, the Supreme Court observed on Wednesday as it gave time to the central government and lawyers to suggest how this rule, applicable to vehicles registered after April 2019, could be extended to owners of vehicles registered prior to this date.

Vehicles in a traffic jam near Mukarba Chowk on Jan. 10 in New Delhi (PTI FILE)
Vehicles in a traffic jam near Mukarba Chowk on Jan. 10 in New Delhi (PTI FILE)

“We want the provision of law to say that responsibility of affixing the sticker is on the owner. We are concerned how do we apply this to vehicles registered prior to April 1, 2019,” a bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said.

The bench said if owners failed to comply, there should be a penalty provision.

Posting the matter for further hearing on January 27, the court said, “Some time limit has to be given to say that without this sticker, pollution under control (PUC) certificate will not be issued or it has to be done at the time of renewal of insurance or when the vehicle’s ownership gets transferred.”

Senior advocate Aparajita Singh assisting the court as amicus curiae said that old vehicles were not being provided these stickers in Delhi-NCR.

The bench said, “We will invoke our extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to implement It.”

A note presented by the Union ministry of road, transport and highways (MoRTH) on Wednesday showed that the rollout of the high security registration plate (HSRP) including the hologram-based colour-coded stickers has shown an average 95% compliance among vehicles registered after the cutoff date (April 2019) in Delhi and neighbouring states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

But only 30% of the vehicles registered before April 1, 2019, have these colour-coded stickers.

Additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati appearing for the Centre said that the ministry ordered in December 2018 that the colour-coded stickers would be treated as the third registration mark and that it was the manufacturer’s responsibility to get them affixed.

Singh underlined that any rule linking the colour-coded stickers to renewal of PUC will not achieve the intended results since already a large percentage of vehicle owners did not get PUCs.

“Non-compliance of PUC is high though there is a penalty prescribed under the Motor Vehicles Act for not having one,” the amicus curiae said.

The court asked Singh to examine how PUC could be made mandatory. “Address us on the MV (Motor Vehicle) Rules on what it says on PUC. If the rule is not being complied with, then there will be so many polluting vehicles on road. We will issue directions to the Centre and see how this rule (on PUC) can be applied effectively.”

Senior advocate Vipin Sanghi appearing for an applicant seeking urgent steps to curb vehicular pollution said that while pollution linked to stubble burning spikes during the winter, the air quality index (AQI) in Delhi has exceeded 400-mark leading to GRAP-4 measures to be enforced though there is no instance of stubble burning in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana.

Sanghi, who retired as a Delhi high court judge, said, “My experience has shown that it is the vehicular pollution which is the biggest contributor to pollution.” The court assured that it will be setting up separate dates for considering various sources of pollution and the issue of vehicular pollution, in general, can be heard next month.

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