NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday prohibited the plying of 15-year-old petrol and 10-year-old diesel vehicles in the national capital region. The top court also directed the transport department to announce that such vehicles will be impounded if found plying. Describing the prevailing situation of pollution in the Delhi-NCR region as "very critical", the court said the list of 15-year-old petrol and 10-year-old petrol vehicles be given on the website of Central Pollution Control Board and transport department of NCR.

It also ordered the CPCB to immediately make social media account on which citizens can complain about pollution. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta said that advertisement on this should also be published in the newspapers.

It permitted the court-mandated Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) to take pre-emptive steps under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) without strict adherence to pollution stages delineated in the plan. GRAP is aimed at tackling air pollution in Delhi-NCR and adjoining areas and it is designed to take urgent remedial action when air quality deteriorates.

The apex court passed these directions on a note placed before it by advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the air pollution matter, seeking urgent directions to correct the prevailing situation of pollution.

Earlier, the National Green Tribunal had also banned 15-yr-old petrol and 10-yr-old diesel vehicles in Delhi-NCR. The had NGT noted that one diesel vehicle causes pollution equivalent to 24 petrol or 40 CNG vehicles.

Last week, the SC had said that no Bharat Stage IV vehicle shall be sold across the country with effect from April 1, 2020.

The Bharat stage emission standards are standards instituted by the government to regulate output of air pollutants from motor vehicles.The Bharat Stage VI (or BS-VI) emission norm would come into force from April 1, 2020 across the country.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur made it clear that only BS VI compliant vehicle shall be sold in the country from April 1st, 2020.

(With inputs from PTI)