The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government to clarify the exemption given to women and two-wheelers from the odd-even number plate scheme which will be implemented in the national Capital for a fortnight, beginning January 1.
The court, however, refused to pass any interim order on a plea by Delhi resident Karuna Chhatwal, who sought direction to restrict the movement of cars driven by women drivers as well as two-wheelers.
Issuing the notice, the court asked the Delhi Government to file a status report within three days and listed the matter for further hearing on January 6.
“Get instructions why such exemptions, for women and two-wheelers, are necessary,” a Bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Sunil Gaur said while directing the Delhi Government to submit data on the pollution levels and the number of vehicles plying on the city’s roads during the 15-day-long experiment.
Significantly, the vehicles exempted from the odd-even scheme also include the President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, Union Ministers and Governors and Chief Ministers of States and Union Territories “except that of Delhi”.
In a related plea by an advocate Rahul Aggarwal seeking exemption for lawyers from the scheme, the Bench said if it allows them to use their vehicles then this court will be flooded with litigation from doctors and other officials, who have not been included in list of 25 exempted categories.
Earlier, while seeking direction, Chhatwal, in her plea said that granting exemption to women drivers from the odd-even scheme was discriminatory, causing prejudice to a large number of people.
She further said there was no constitutional provision to grant such exemption. So the scheme is “infringing on the Right to life of the general public at large, which is violation of fundamental right provided under Article 21 of Constitution of India”.
She said the scheme was introduced to control air pollution and exempting women drivers and two-wheelers will defeat the very objective. “Granting exemption to women and two-wheelers from the odd-even scheme is arbitrary and discriminatory. It is stated that the Constitutional guarantee of Right to Equality provides equal rights and liabilities of all citizens,” the plea added.
The petition stated that two-wheelers emit more pollutants than four-wheelers and are responsible for almost 60 per cent of vehicular pollution.
The court’s oral observation was made during hearing the PIls, filed by Chhatwal, Shweta Kapoor and Sarvesh Singh, which sought directions for restraining implementation of the odd-even rule.
Earlier, the HC refused to pass any interim direction on the PIls, saying: “The Delhi Government has proposed an idea, which is to be implemented from January 1, 2016, on trial basis for 15 days, let them (Delhi Government) try it.”
One of the petitioners has claimed that “imposition of such a policy/law would be contrary to public interest and has been imposed without any public debate or discussion and without understanding situation and facts and circumstances in India”. It has also questioned whether the AAP Government has the power to modify vehicular movement in the city.
Meanwhile, in a related matter to the ongoing debate over the odd-even scheme, the HC also sought the response of Delhi Education Department on a plea against its direction to private unaided schools to provide their buses to run as public transport during the operation of the odd-even scheme from January 1 to 15.
Justice Hima Kohli did not issue any interim order against the Department of Education’s (DoE) direction after the AAP Government said no coercive steps would be taken against those schools which do not give buses for the scheme.
It, however, issued notice to DoE and sought its reply by January 14, the next date of hearing.
Senior standing counsel for Delhi Government Rahul Mehra, who appeared for DoE, told the court that 1,700 buses have been voluntarily provided by several private unaided schools.