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Last Updated : Oct 13 1999 | 12:00 AM IST

The Supreme Court yesterday rejected pleas to extend the deadline set in its April 29 order laying down stricter emission norms for registration of non-commercial private vehicles in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) had sought extension of the deadline to October 31.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice A S Anand, Justice B N Kirpal and Justice V N Khare, however, gave verbal clarifications on some aspects and promised more with regard to others in the written order.

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The bench said the emission norms notified by the Union government in August 1997, christened `India 2000 Norms', would apply in place of the Euro-I emission norms.

The verbal clarification came when it was pointed out in the arguments that the Euro norms were based on the high quality of fuel available in developed countries and could not be applied in India.

The `India 2000 Norms' take into account the quality of fuel available in India as well as the temperature and other conditions. Besides, manufacturers' certification would be adequate to determine whether their vehicles complied with the emission norms.

The judges pointed out that the earlier order did not mention certification from testing agencies but had said that the authorities would register a vehicle only after getting the requisite certificate on emission norms from the manufacturers.

The plea for a revision of the earlier order was made by the Union government, Association of Indian Automobile Manufacturers and various auto manufacturers, including market leader MUL, Toyota Kirlosakar and Telco.

"There will be no extension of the dates fixed for implementation of Euro-I and Euro-II emission norms but we will clarify our April 29 order with regard to other aspects, including vehicles running on CNG (compressed natural gas)," the bench observed.

The judges came down heavily on automobile manufacturers for "dumping obsolete technology" in India even while exporting vehicles which conformed to Euro norms.

They said that they had also contemplated a complete ban on registration of vehicles not complying to Euro-II norms before allowing the leeway of 1,500 registrations a months for those meeting Euro-I norms.

"Most of the auto manufacturers in India are selling cars in Europe, which implemented Euro-II norms in 1996, but are not concerned about the pollution and its effect on the health of Indians," the bench observed.

Export of vehicles that met the Euro norms meant that the technology was available with the manufacturers, the bench said.

Additional solicitor-general Kirit N Raval pleaded that the apex court's order, requiring a sudden switchover of technology, could be implemented in a phased manner as authorised testing agencies were not equipped to approve prototypes of automobiles in a short period and issue necessary certificates.

On repeated pleas by Raval for extension of the deadline, the bench asked: "How did you (the government) permit yesterday's technology to come to India?" and wondered whether the health of the country's citizens was of any concern to the government.

Senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for MUL, sought extension of deadline for Euro-I norms till October 1, saying the entire production for the largest segment of auto market (NCR) would otherwise come to a halt affecting 6,000 people employed directly and an equal number employed indirectly.

The judges also observed that Delhi had nearly one vehicle for every three persons (3 million vehicles, 10 million population), not counting bicycles. Not many places in the world had such high concentration of vehicles, they said, asking: "You want to add more?".

Venugopal pointed out that Maruti would incur a high cost in importing components like multi-point fuel injection to meet the Euro norms. The bench responded: "If the choice is between economics

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First Published: Oct 13 1999 | 12:00 AM IST

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