The AAP government on Wednesday was asked by the Delhi high court to clarify why women drivers and two-wheeler riders have been exempted from the odd-even scheme coming into effect here from Friday.
A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Sunil Gaur said, “Get instruction why such exemption (women and two-wheelers) is necessary.” The court also directed the Delhi government to submit data on the pollution levels and the number of vehicles plying during the scheme effective for 15 days starting on January 1.
The court also refrained from passing any interim order on a plea by a Delhi resident, Karuna Chhat-wal, who sought direction to restrict the movement of cars driven by women drivers as well as two-wheelers. The bench issued no-tice to the Delhi governme-nt asking it to file a status report within three days.
The bench, acting on a plea by advocate Rahul Aggarwal seeking exemption for lawyers from the scheme, said if it allows them to use their vehicles then the high court will be flooded with litigation from doctors and other officials, who have not been included in list of 25 exempted categories.
It also issued notice to the Delhi government on another issue raised by advocate Manoj Kumar, who filed a joint PIL with Gunjan Khanna, a petitioner who commutes from Noida, challenging the December 28 notification related to odd-even scheme to check pollution in the capital.
The Delhi government should “call for a public debate before enforcing the decision,” the petitioners said.
The three petitions are now listed for the next hea-ring on January 6, when the court will hear other four PILs filed by different individuals against the AAP government’s curbs.
The President, vice-president, Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, Union ministers and governors and chief ministers of states and Union Territories “except that of Delhi” are exempted from the scheme. Besides, women drivers, CNG-certified vehicles, VIPs, two-wheelers, ambulances, defence vehicles and embassy vehicles have also been exempted.
Ms Chhatwal’s plea said that granting exemption to women drivers was discriminatory, causing prejudice to large number of people. There was no constitutional provision to grant such exemption. So, the scheme is “infringing Right to Life of general public at large, which is violation of fundamental right,” she added.
She said the scheme was introduced to control air pollution and exempting women drivers will defeat the very objective.
It added, “Granting exemption to two-wheeler vehicles is arbitrary and discriminatory. It is stated that the constitutional guarantee of Right to Equality provides equal rights and liabilities of all citizens.”
The petition stated that two-wheelers emit pollutants and contribute almost 60 per cent of air pollution and cars constitute a part of the remaining air pollution.
