The Supreme Court said that people should be made aware on how to get hologram-based colour coded stickers, which indicate the fuel being used by a vehicle, and the transport ministry should issue advertisements in this regard. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said this after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) A N S Nadkarni, appearing for the ministry, said that people could collect these stickers from the district transport office after showing the registration certificate of the vehicle.
"People should know how to get it (stickers). You may have to put it in newspapers and issue advertisements for this," the bench told the ASG. The apex court had on August 13 accepted the proposal of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways(MoRTH) which had said that hologram-based light blue colour sticker would be used in vehicles using petrol and CNG fuel, while an orange sticker would be put on diesel-run vehicles.
It had asked the ministry to implement the colour-coded sticker system in the vehicles plying in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) by October 2. During the hearing, advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the air pollution matter, told the court that the process of having these colour coded stickers has not yet started and the MoRTH must inform the court about it.
The ASG said that appropriate notification with regard to these stickers have been issued and amendment in the rules would be made in the due course. The bench asked the ministry to file an affidavit in this regard within two weeks.
The bench also dealt with the issue related to Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd which had earlier said that they were selling hybrid vehicles which caused very negligible pollution and there was no distinction for these kinds of vehicles in the colour-coded system.
The counsel appearing for Toyota said placing them at par with petrol and diesel vehicle would not be correct. "It is for the government to decide," the bench told Toyota's counsel. In its earlier affidavit, the MoRTH had told the court that they were supporting the proposal of the amicus regarding colour-coded stickers which could be used to identify vehicles and restrict those using dirtier fuel during "poor category" pollution days.
They had said that date of registration of the vehicle would also be printed on these colour coded stickers. The amicus had earlier told the court that colour-coded stickers, as used in Paris, would help in tackling air pollution which would be more effective than having "odd-even" vehicle rotation scheme in Delhi. The issue of colour coded stickers for vehicles had cropped up when the apex court was hearing a matter relating to air pollution in Delhi-NCR.
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