The Supreme Court recently expressed disappointment over National Green Tribunal’s suggestion to divert trucks heading to an Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Delhi’s Tughlakabad to ICD’s outside the National Capital Region.
A bench comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Pankaj Mithal stated that the right to clean air is not the entitlement of people living in the national capital alone. The bench added that the suggestion to divert trucks to other ICDs was unjustified and unwarranted.
The apex court mentioned that the National Green Tribunal has inter alia observed that there is an option to restrict the entry of diesel vehicles in the said ICDs at Tughlakabad by diverting these vehicles to the ICDs at Dadri, Rewari, Ballabhgarh, Khatuwas or any other ICs around Delhi so as to control pollution in Delhi NCR. The Court said that the suggestion appeared like only the people living in Delhi NCR alone are entitled to pollution free atmosphere and not those living in other parts of the country.
The Court ruled that such an observation by the NGT is in complete ignorance of the fact that citizens living in other parts of the country other than Delhi NCR also have a fundamental right to a pollution free environment as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. The Supreme Court underlined that such a fundamental right is equally enforceable by all and is not confined to the people of Delhi NCR.
The observation follows in a case concerning pollution caused by heavy-duty diesel trailer trucks in and around Delhi. Earlier a former executive at the Central Warehousing Corporation approached the NGT raising grievance against the pollution caused due to the trucks coming to ICD at Tughlakabad. The former executive prayed that the vehicles entering the depot be diverted to those around Delhi-NCR and non-electric trucks/trailers/trains not bound for Delhi be prohibited from using the depot.
The NGT had then called for the formulation of an action plan to divert such vehicles to Dadri ( in Uttar Pradesh) Rewari and Ballabhgarh (both in Haryana), or Khatuawas ( in Rajasthan), leading to the appeals before the apex court.
The Supreme Court had also issued notice in the matter in April 2019 and ordered no coercive action against the depot operators and vehicle owners. The top court bench in its verdict made the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry a party to the matter for necessary compliance.