The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) is behaving like the Ministry of Environment Destruction, senior advocate Harish Salve told the Supreme Court today.
Salve, who is assisting the apex court as an amicus curiae in a PIL filed by an environmentalist in 1985 dealing with various aspects of pollution, told a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that the Centre has "diluted" an affidavit due to pressure from the "car lobby".
He, however, did not argue anything about the contents of the Centre's affidavit.
"I am anguished to say that the MoEF is behaving like the Ministry of Environment Destruction," Salve said.
However, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, denied any such pressure or influence as claimed by Salve.
The bench fixed the matter for hearing on August 22.
The apex court had earlier passed a slew of directions on several aspects related to pollution including that of pollution from vehicles.
It had recently issued directions that included non- renewal of insurance policy of vehicles unless the owner provides pollution under control (PUC) certificate to the insurance firms.
It had asked the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to ensure within four weeks that all fuel refilling centres in national capital region (NCR) have a functional PUC centre.
The apex court had earlier granted three months time to the Centre to come out with standards for emissions by industries in the NCR to bring down the level of air pollutants.
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