The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on a plea of diesel car manufacturers to modify the December ban on registration of vehicles with engine capacity of more than 2000 cc, without giving any indication of the date for delivery of its decision.
Carmakers, led by Mercedes Benz, offered to collect one per cent of the purchase price and deposit it in an escrow account to satisfy the environment concerns expressed in a public interest litigation. However, the counsel appointed to assist the court in the matter, Aparijata Singh, vehemently opposed the proposal, stating that the one per cent offer was "peanuts" for those who buy luxury cars paying Rs 50 lakh or more. She showed data to argue that the difference in environment damage between diesel and petrol fuels amounted to 20 per cent and one per cent was a "fig leaf".
In another development, Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi told a Bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur that the government was soon coming out with a proposal to buy old vehicles and scrap them. The scheme might cover vehicles that were 10 years or older and the government intended to recover the huge expenditure from infrastructure projects.
