Supreme Court Issues Notice On Plea To Permit Conversion Of 10 Year Old Diesel Buses To CNG

Appearing before the Bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai, Advocate Mrs. Rani Chhabra had argued that the endorsement is not being provided to the said vehicles in terms of an order passed by the Apex Court on 05.01.2016, which had no bearing with passenger vehicles. The order referred to by the authorities is one pertaining to Taxis including aggregators like Ola and Uber, wherein the Apex Court had held that Taxis will not be converted into CNG after 31.03.2016.

"They have relied upon the order of this Hon'ble Court and this Hon'ble Court has only observed with regard to taxis, it has nothing to do with passenger vehicles."

It was contended that instead of endorsing the CNG buses of the petitioners, who are engaged in the transport business in District Bulandshahr and had been granted valid stage carriage permits, the RTO, Ghaziabad had sought opinion of Government Counsel, Mr. Pradeep Mishra. He had relied upon the order of the Apex Court dated 05.01.2016 to state that diesel buses cannot be converted into CNG after 31.02.2016. The RTO is yet to pass an order and it is this inaction that has been challenged in the petition.

On 07.04.2015, considering the surge in the vehicular pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR), the National Green Tribunal, Delhi ("NGT") had given directions that all diesel vehicles above 10 years would not be permitted to ply on the roads of NCR, Delhi and barred registration of these vehicles. In the order of the NGT, the NCR area has been described to include Gurgaon, Bahadurgarh, Ghaziabad and NOIDA.

In November, 2016, the Transport Commissioner, UP had issued directions that Diesel vehicles of Bharat Levels -I and II of more than 10 years and Petrol vehicles of more than 15 years are to be declared as scrap. Accordingly, the Regional Transport Authority, Meerut and Regional Transfer Officer, Ghaziabad refused to grant fitness certificates to the diesel buses of above 10 years. As a result of which the petitioners' services were hinder and they approached the NGT. By order dated 28.11.2016, the Tribunal permitted the conversion of diesel vehicles to CNG. Consequently, some of the petitioners got their vehicles retrofitted after expiry of 10 years in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and approached the RTO Ghaziabad for endorsement.

The petitioners argue that neither any order passed by the NGT, nor the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Acts bar conversion of buses to CNG on expiry of 10 years. It is averred that since the petitioners have valid permits, not endorsing the conversion or not permitting to convert to CNG would not only be arbitrary, but also infringe the right to livelihood guaranteed by the Constitution. As per the 2019 Amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act, all vehicles registered before or after the commencement of the Act will become valid for a period of 15 years. Therefore, it is contended, that as the registration is valid upto 15 years after the 2019 Amendment came into force, the action to not endorse the already converted buses or not allowing the petitioners to now convert to CNG is in violation of Article 14 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution.

[Case Title: Padam Singh Tomar And Ors v. Ministry of Road Transport And Highways And Ors. WP (C) No. 203 of 2022]