The Delhi High Court on Thursday told the city government not to create panic among the citizens and give them more time to obtain colour-coded fuel stickers and high-security registration plates (HSRP) before it starts imposing ₹5,500 fine for violations.
A Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh said even they were clueless about the requirement of the stickers and asked the Delhi government’s counsel to come with “detailed instructions” regarding the steps taken by the government to publicise the move.
The Bench said even the vehicles of the High Court lacked these stickers and wondered whether they would be fined too.
The court asked the government’s counsel to come with instructions on who decided to outsource the sale of stickers and HSRP to Original Equipment Manufacturers, who fixed the rates for the same, and whether more time ought to be given to people to obtain the stickers and HSRP before penalising them for the lack of the same.
Referring to his own personal experience, Justice Singh said he came to know about the colour-coded stickers from news reports of the challan drive and managed to book stickers for two of his vehicles with much difficulty as the website for the same kept crashing.
The High Court was hearing Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Anil Kumar’s plea alleging that vehicle owners in the Capital were being charged 10 times more than the legal fee of ₹12.15 for the colour-coded fuel stickers for old and new vehicles.
Mr. Kumar claimed that though the price of the colour-coded hologram sticker has been notified to ₹12.15, the residents of Delhi are forced to purchase it for an amount of ₹141.60 at the venue of the car dealerships.
The plea alleged that under the garb of implementing the Supreme Court’s directions, the Delhi government is causing “illegal and unfair profits to the OEMs, which is leading to unfair loss to the public exchequer”.
During the hearing, the Delhi government said it has nothing to do with fixing the rate of the stickers and HSRP and it was only concerned with implementing the Supreme Court directions.
Apart from seeking a direction to authorities to not charge beyond the permissible fees, Mr. Kumar urged the high court to keep in abeyance the Delhi government’s decision to impose a challan of ₹5,500 on the vehicle owners with no colour-coded stickers.
