SC to hear tomorrow pleas of Mercedes, Toyota and Mahindra

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today agreed to hear tomorrow the pleas of automobile firms Mercedes, Toyota and Mahindra, seeking modification of an order by which many drastic steps including ban on registration of certain diesel-run vehicles were taken to curb pollution in Delhi.

"We will hear tomorrow," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi said on their pleas.

The automobile giants are aggrieved by one of the directions of the apex court which said that diesel-run sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and high-end private cars with engine capacity of 2000 CC and above will not be registered in Delhi and National Capital Region till March 31, 2016.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A M Singhvi appeared on behalf of Toyota and Mahindra respectively and sought urgent hearing on the pleas.

Besides banning registration of certain kind of diesel-run vehicles, the court had also unveiled a slew of measures to curb the alarming rise in pollution levels in the national capital.

It also directed 100 per cent hike of the Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) being levied on light and heavy commercial vehicles entering Delhi.

It had directed that "all taxis including those operating under aggregators like OLA and UBER in the NCT of Delhi, plying under city permits shall move to CNG not later than 1st March, 2016."