NOIDA CITY GETS BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT UNIT, SPECIAL NEWBORN CARE FACILITY

SC GAVE CENTRE TIME TO DECIDE HOW THE RULE CAN BE IMPOSED ON OWNERS OF VEHICLES REGISTERED BEFORE APRIL 19

- Maria Khan

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that the onus of implementing colour-coded stickers for petrol and diesel vehicles in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) is on vehicle owners, and gave the Centre and lawyers assisting in the matter time to suggest how this rule—applicable to vehicles registered after April 2019—can be implemented on owners of vehicles registered before April 2019.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by lawyer-activist MC Mehta, seeking remedial steps to reduce pollution in the Capital.

A bench headed by Justice Abhay S Oka said, "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."

The bench, also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, further noted that if owners failed to comply, there should be a penalty provision. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on January 27.

Senior advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court as amicus curiae, said that old vehicles in Delhi-NCR were not being provided with these stickers. The bench said, "We will invoke our extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to implement it."

A note presented by the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MORTH) on Wednesday showed that in Delhi-NCR, the roll-out of the high security registration plate (HSRP), including the hologram-based colour-coded stickers, has shown an average 95% compliance among vehicles registered after April 2019.

However, the roll-out was barely 30% by vehicles registered before this date.

NOIDA: The Gautam Budh Nagar administration on Wednesday said it has completed the social impact survey of around five acres of land to be acquired for the golf course project being developed in Noida’s Sector 151 along Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.