Ban on Diesel Vehicles

At last, Supreme court took a decisive step and banned all the diesel vehicles in Delhi. The case was being postponed for a long time and this was considered imminent by experts. However, the people have reacted in a mixed manner. Some call it a matter of judicial overreach and unnecessary flexing of muscles by the Supreme court. Others consider it another landmark judgement in the environmental history of the country.

The argument of judicial overreach seems correct in the wake of lack of judicial impact assessment of its judgement by the judiciary. As soon as the verdict was out, nearly 27000 taxis went off the road out of near 60000 registered in Delhi. This came in the backdrop of Odd-even which fortunately ended the same day on which this judgement came into the force. However, this was concomitant with near forty plus temperature in the city. As a result, public faced difficulty in getting a cab to locomote them in the different part of the city. Further, nearly 27000 families went jobless as a result of offloading of diesel taxis. This too amid the jobless growth which India is witnessing. The last quarter of 2015 even saw job losses instead of new jobs creation. Therefore, to no one's surprise, taxi drivers started protesting against the verdict. And this is where Judiciary failed to assess the impact of its verdict.


In a city with broken and inadequate public transport system and no new jobs, throwing out so many people out of a job in one blow is a clear case of lack of application of judicial insight. In the past also, when Judiciary had added cases of cheque bounce as a non-compoundable offence, nearly 25 lakh cases were added within a fortnight in the pending list of judiciary. Thus, the chorus of judicial overreach gained substance. However, what else could judiciary have done in this situation?

City's pollution is breaching all the limits that even athletes are finding Delhi a tough place to practice. Just think about the numerous children, women and old-age people. How difficult would it be for them to survive in a situation where even at night 3'o clock, the city is shrouded in a layer of haze, dust and gases. The Court had correctly described Delhi as an open chamber of toxic gases. Ideally, the action should have come from the executive. But as often the case, executive dereliction and legislative ill-policy or no-policy/no-law create a vacuum which forces the judiciary to wear the hat of judicial activism.

The phasing out of diesel vehicle was on cards for last one year and supreme court kept postponing the deadlines on the pretext of earlier written arguments. However, somewhere it needed to stop and the doomsday came earlier than many thought. Let's ponder over What could have been a possible course of action or what are the lesson learnt from this crisis?

Firstly, If we analyze the root cause of the problem i.e. why the proliferation of so many diesel vehicles, it lies in our mismanaged subsidy policy on diesel fuel. What was intended for agricultural sector was fully leveraged by automobile sector. Therefore, we need to frame our policies in a correct manner. Every such subsidy regime should come with possible use-case scenarios and sunset clause which should be enforced with ferocity.

Secondly, Executive and Judiciary should have a coordination mechanism. Though they operate under the vision of article 50 i.e. theory of separation of power. But this does not mean one would go east and other will pull to the west. There has to be some sort of synchronization in judiciary-executive-legislature. This would have allowed Delhi government to take necessary steps for arranging cheap or subsidized conversion of diesel to petrol vehicle or sprucing public transport or creating avenues for easy transition from diesel free regime on the roads.

Thirdly, Judges should conduct the enforceability test and impact test on their judgement. It does not require Socratic wisdom to see if something could be enforced with understaffed police and overburdened judiciary. Some time back, the judiciary has given a verdict on restriction on entry of more than fifteen-year-old vehicles on Delhi roads. But nothing happened on the ground. This not only compromises judiciary's image and authenticity but also creates confusion in the society. In such situation, a law-abiding person feels the most disappointed and discouraged.

Fourthly, to the government "Create jobs". All talks of skill India, Standup India, Startup India, would prove cow dung if jobs are not getting added in the economy.

Anyway, for now, the executive needs to act fast and make sure a smooth transition happens from diesel to petrol vehicle at whatever cost possible. This would ensure that public has enough options for commuting, people do not end up losing jobs, a poor policy is phased out, our children can breathe easily and judiciary's face would be saved.