SC: PUC must for renewal of vehicle insurance

New Delhi: In a bid to curb pollution, the Supreme Court on Thursday issued a slew of directions including that insurance companies will not renew insurance of a vehicle unless the owner provides pollution under control (PUC) certificate.

A bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur also asked the ministry of road transport and highways to ensure that all fuel refilling centres in the National Capital Region (NCR) have PUC centres. The apex court granted four weeks time to the Centre to ensure that there are functional PUC centres in NCR to ensure that vehicles plying have PUC certificate.

The court considered the suggestions given by Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA). The bench was hearing a PIL filed by environmentalist M.C. Mehta way back in 1985 dealing with various aspects of pollution. Welcoming the Supreme Court’s order, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said that it can have far reaching impact on curbing air pollution. 

Sunita Narain, director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), welcomed the order “as an important step forward, as the EPCA investigation has shown very poor level of compliance with the PUC programme”. An earlier assessment of the PUC programme had found very little compliance. In Delhi, only 23 per cent of the vehicles came for PUC tests.

The apex court’s order means all PUC centres will be linked with on-line network and data centre to prevent manual tampering and that state governments will have to audit all PUC centres and set up a strong oversight system to ensure credible tests and emissions results, said CSE in a statement. 

“The PUC system is critical to keep emissions of on-road vehicles under check. Overall improvement in compliance will lead to lesser emissions on road,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, CSE’s executive director-research and advocacy.