Delhi High Court declines stay on pre-BS-VI vehicle entry ban

The Delhi High Court refused interim relief against the capital's three-month vehicle-entry restriction. The challenge alleges unequal treatment and questions the policy's scientific basis.Newdelhi,Nov 2, 2026 15:44 ISTThe Delhi High Court on Monday refused to stay the city administration's decision to bar non-Delhi-registered vehicles that do not meet BS-VI emission standards from entering the capital between November 1 and January 31, news agency Press Trust of India reported.A bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma declined to pass an interim order at this stage. It issued notice on a petition filed by Faridabad-based lawyer Gurmukh Dass Kohli and listed the case for hearing with a related matter on November 27.Kohli, represented by advocate Anurag Saxena, challenged the Department of Environment and Forests' June 23 notification banning the entry of non-Delhi-registered pre-BS-VI vehicles into the capital for three months.Saxena argued that Delhi needed a comprehensive plan rather than a "piecemeal or knee-jerk response" that treated one car differently from an identical vehicle. According to PTI, the petition said pre-BS-VI vehicles registered in Delhi would be allowed to operate in the capital during the ban, resulting in "differential treatment". It argued that the measure restricted the movement of people living in the integrated National Capital Region, including advocates and litigants.The petition said the policy was disproportionate because the ban would apply regardless of the Air Quality Index on a given day. It added that the notification itself provided for less restrictive steps, including year-round enforcement and double parking charges. "Under the Impugned Direction, from 01.11.2026 to 31.01.2027, on every day and at every hour, irrespective of the Air Quality Index on that day, the Petitioner will be barred from driving his duly registered Haryana vehicle into Delhi, while an otherwise comparable BS-IV vehicle registered in Delhi is outside the scope of the same restriction," the petition said.It further contended: "The classification turns on the place of registration and not on emission. Exhaust does not change with the registering authority; the differentia has no nexus with the object of controlling pollution and fails the test of Article 14."The petition also argued that the revised Graded Response Action Plan issued by the Commission for Air Quality Management in September did not provide for such a restriction and that the decision was not based on any scientific assessment.The High Court has not granted interim relief against the three-month vehicle-entry ban and will hear the petition along with a related case on November 27.- Ends