The Delhi government has put on hold a controversial directive that barred End-of-Life (EOL) vehicles from refuelling at city petrol stations. In a letter addressed to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa urged immediate suspension of Direction No. 89, citing key operational challenges with the enforcement mechanism.
“We urge the Commission to put the implementation of Direction No. 89 on hold with immediate effect till the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system is seamlessly integrated across the entire NCR. We are confident that the ongoing multi-pronged efforts of the Delhi Government will achieve substantial improvements in air quality,” Sirsa wrote, according to news agency ANI.
Sirsa pointed to several technical hurdles including improper camera installation, lack of data integration with neighbouring states, and the absence of ANPR infrastructure outside Delhi. “Cross-border fuel procurement could rise as a result,” he warned, adding that this may foster illegal fuel markets if the rollout is phased in only one region.
The fuel restriction sparked an uproar among vehicle owners and experts, many of whom questioned the logic of an age-based ban. Senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, Sushant Sareen, called it “the single most stupid rule”.
He wrote on X, “Scrap a polluting vehicle even if it’s 1 year old; allow a non-polluting vehicle even if it’s 20 years old. Enforce pollution norms strictly. But scrapping vehicles just on age of vehicle is a brainless thing to do. Since it’s NGC dictated no one wants to challenge this foolishness.”
Pediatrician and public health expert Prof. Dr. Sanjeev Bagai echoed similar concerns. “Not merely the age of car. The newer cars run very well on good maintenance upto 14-15 years or more. Check the PUC. NOT THE AGE OF CARS,” he posted.
Poll analyst Yashwant Deshmukh shared a personal account of frustration: “I was forced to sell my perfectly running Fortuner, which did not even run 1 lakh km in 10 long years. I was so damn frustrated. Taka set bhaji, taka set khaja…This is the dumbest rule possible.”
Former Army commander KJS Dhillon commented, “As a fauji who maintains every possession so dearly, I feel bad to see the perfectly running (all emissions well within acceptable limits) vehicle being denied fuel and impounded to be sold as scrap.”
BJP’s Parvesh Verma also said that there are a lot of problems regarding ANPR implementation. ANPR is not easy,” he said, adding that the rule should be pollution-based, not age-based. “Vehicles should be banned by looking at their pollution status and not their age,” Verma said. He also questioned the selective enforcement. “When it will be implemented in NCR, we will consider implementing it,” he noted.
The policy has now been challenged in court. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Delhi government and CAQM on a plea by the Delhi Petrol Dealers Association, which called the enforcement unfair and unworkable.
The association argued that dealers lack legal authority to deny fuel. “Petrol pump dealers are being required to enforce the directions for which they do not have any authority in law, and then they are also being penalised for any non-compliance which may happen due to sheer inadvertence,” submitted advocates Anand Varma, Adyasha Nanda, and Apoorva Pandey.
The petition further said dealers are private operators under oil marketing companies and should not be made responsible for government enforcement. It warned this undermines legal norms and creates a grey area between private and state responsibilities.
It also contested the use of Section 192 of the Motor Vehicles Act to penalise dealers, and highlighted that petrol stations with a daily footfall of 3,000 vehicles cannot be expected to ensure 100% compliance. The current penalty structure for inadvertent lapses was termed “disproportionate and unreasonable.”
The current directive stems from a 2018 Supreme Court ruling banning diesel vehicles over 10 years old and petrol vehicles over 15 years old in Delhi. A 2014 NGT order also bars public parking of vehicles older than 15 years.
