Currently, the mandatory scrapping of vehicles older than 15 years is applicable only in Delhi-NCR.Following a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, petrol vehicles older than 15 years and those with diesel engines over 10 years are not allowed to ply on Delhi-NCR roads with the court ordering them off the roads as a step to keep older and polluting vehicles away. Such vehicles are automatically deregistered from the Vahan database. But road transport and highways secretary Anurag Jain said that the norms are being reviewed.
“People tell us that if they’ve maintained their vehicle well, why should they be mandated to scrap it? We are studying whether we can enforce a scrapping mandate where the upper limit is relative to the pollution of the vehicle, for example, pre-BS-I or pre-BS-II, instead of the 15-year mandate,” he said at a Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) event. There have been complaints by certain car owners against the measure who claim that they have maintained their vehicles well and it’s unfair to send them for scrapping simply because of the age criteria.
Jain said a “trustworthy” fitness check on the vehicles can make it clear whether the vehicle is fit to run on the road. “We will have to come out with ensuring that the pollution test will become something which is trustworthy. I would request all of you to help us out in designing the program of pollution checks,” Jain said, while addressing auto industry representatives. Later, Jain told TOI, the options are being explored for vehicles registered outside NCR.
Globally, there are strict fitness certifications, including for tyres, that vehicles have to undergo periodically to be treated road worthy. In India, however, courts have taken a different approach and gone for bans due to lax in implementation of the rules by govt agencies.
While the Centre had sought a review of the norms, the SC had turned it down. There is another appeal before the SC, which is yet to come up for hearing.
