The court had asked the lawyers of the automotive companies to explore the prospect of charging a one-time cess, which can be applied at the time of vehicle registration.
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Mercedes-Benz, the Stuttgart based automotive giant, is one of the many vehicle makers who was affected by the diesel cars ban in Delhi-NCR region.
The lawyer representing the luxury carmaker, Mohan Parasaran, moved the motion before a bench comprising of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, which has approved the plea to be heard on Friday, August 12.
The apex court had on December 16 previous year banned registration of diesel-run SUVs and cars having engine capacity beyond 2000 cc in the NCR in an attempt to curb the alarming rise in pollution levels in the city.
The court on 4 July reserved its order on the issue of modifying its order to allow registrations of these vehicles.
The Ministry of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises, which supported the automobile giants’ bid for modification of the order, had, however, opposed the court-mandated imposition of green cess on buyers of big diesel cars and SUVs.
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All Mercedes-Benz diesel engines are above that bracket and given the fact that Delhi-NCR is an important market, the company is reeling under a lot of pressure. The court wasn’t swayed by the government’s request to it to to relax the ban, and its promise to implement an action plan to deal with pollution, the Economic Times reported. The court has yet to take its decision on any of those pleas.
