The two-member Delhi high court bench said: “Keeping in view that restrictions (are) only for a limited period of 15 days, and it is stated the scheme has been enforced as a pilot project to ascertain the reduction, if any, of pollution levels, we are of the view that interference by this court is not warranted.”
In its 12-page order, the court said: “Implemen-tation may have caused hardship to a section of society, however, the power of judicial review cannot be extended to determine the correctness of such policy decisions or to find whether there could be more appropriate or better alternatives.”
The division bench said: “It’s neither within domain of the courts nor the scope of judicial review to embark upon an enquiry as to whether a particular public policy is wise or whether a better public policy can be evolved as suggested by the petitioners.”
The bench also observed that the “law is well settled that on matters affecting policy, the courts will not interfere unless the policy is unconstitutional or contrary to statutory provisions or arbitrary or irrational or in abuse of power... Since policy decisions are taken based on expert knowledge... the courts are normally not equipped to question the correctness of a policy decision”.
On January 8, the high court had reserved its order on the pleas challenging the scheme after the Delhi government defended its stand, saying per capita toxic gas emissions had declined due to the lesser number of cars on the roads. The high court had earlier questioned the impact of the odd-even operation on pollution, and asked the AAP government to consider restricting the programme, due for a fortnight till January 15, to a week.
Delhi High Court Bar Association president Rajiv Khosla, one of the petitioners, had claimed the data submitted by the government was not correct and particulate matter across the city had seen a rising trend despite the scheme being in place since January 1.
Defending the scheme, the government had said it aimed at reducing congestion on Delhi roads that has further contributed towards lowering of pollution. The AAP government contended that particulate and nitrogen-oxide load from cars had come down during the odd-even plan by as much as 40 per cent.
