The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave a lease of life to diesel cabs having All India Tourist Permits (AITP) to ply in the national Capital till the expiry of their permits.
This came as a huge relief to commuters, specially BPO employees, as the earlier order of the Supreme Court phasing out all non-CNG cabs by April 30 had resulted in around 64,000 cabs going off the road.
Coming to the conclusion after hearing out the plea of taxi owners' association, the Central Government, and Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) — the statutory agency assisting the Supreme Court on Delhi pollution matters— the Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, Justices AK Sikri and R Banumathi made it clear that there would be no new registration of diesel-run taxis in Delhi. However, the Bench added that taxis applying for fresh AITP licence will give an undertaking not be ferry passengers from one point to another within Delhi-NCR.
The order by the court came as a breather for the existing diesel cabs which were caught off guard following the court’s decision to allow only CNG cabs in Delhi. On the court's suggestion, the EPCA presented a roadmap to ensure gradual phasing out of diesel taxis, considering the impact it had on business and industry in the Delhi-NCR region with BPO units heavily relying on diesel cabs to pick up and drop their employees at odd hours.
Through senior advocate Harish Salve, the EPCA suggested that to tide over the present crisis, city permits issued to taxis operating within Delhi can be extended to NCR.
These permits have been issued by the Delhi Government to around 21,000 cabs running strictly on Euro-IV petrol and CNG. Secondly, he suggested that existing diesel cabs in the Delhi-NCR could be phased out as and when their five-year permit expired.
The Bench accepted both the suggestions and ordered city permit taxis to operate not just in national Capital Territory but even in NCR, provided the cab owners get requisite permissions from the transport authorities of neighbouring States of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan. This will came as a relief to the companies operating in Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Faridabad. Now, they can hire city permit cabs instead of relying on AIPT cabs. As regards the existing diesel cabs, the Bench directed, “All existing AITP cabs will be allowed to operate till such time their permits expire. We make it clear there will be no renewal of the licence and they must fulfill all norms of safety, security of passengers, and pricing issued by Government.”
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal who represented the National Association for Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) informed the Court that even the industry had decided to ink contract with CNG cab owners once their existing contracts have expired.
The Centre will now have to tweak the Rules under the Motor Vehicles Act in order to enforce upon AITP cabs not to operate point to point routes in Delhi-NCR. All India permits are issued by Union Tourism Ministry and are meant to ferry tourists across long distances. The Court will hear the matter next in July when it will deal with the other issue of imposing green cess on registration of diesel cars above 2000 cc.