The Delhi High Court on Monday upheld the Aam Aadmi Party government’s odd-even rule for restricting the number of vehicles on roads, while allowing it to continue the scheme till January 15 as originally stipulated.
In its order on a bunch of writ petitions challenging the December 28, 2015 notification, a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice G. Rohini said it would not interfere with the notification which allows only cars with odd-numbered licence plates on roads on the odd-numbered dates and those with even-numbered plates on the other days.
However, the court asked the Delhi government to take into consideration various issues raised by the petitioners if it wishes to continue the scheme or decides to enforce the rule again in future.
The Bench said though the implementation of the scheme might have caused hardship to a section of society, the power of judicial review could not be extended to determine correctness of such a policy decision. "Keeping in view that restrictions under notification are only for a limited period of 15 days and it is stated that the scheme has been enforced as a pilot project to ascertain the reduction, if any, of pollution levels, we are of the view that interference by this court is not warranted.”
The court had reserved the order on Friday after senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the Delhi government, submitted a report on the data on air pollution collected in different parts of the city between January 1 and 7, following the scheme’s implementation.
