Supreme Court goes beyond Deepavali AQI, flags vehicular emissions polluting Delhi air

The court says Delhi and the NCR bear the ‘cumulative burden of vehicular traffic’ and seeks to know what has been done to regulate in the capital the entry and plying of vehicles from neighbouring States

Updated - November 10, 2026 05:41 pm IST - NEW DELHI

A layer of smog is seen on Kartavya Path in New Delhi on November 10, 2026. | Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap

Forty-eight hours before Deepavali, amidst the rising crescendo of crackers heralding the festivities, a Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said the people, and not the judiciary, must strike a blow against air pollution in the national capital.

Instead, the court went beyond Deepavali to highlight a consistent danger that sustains and would worsen the toxic air: vehicular emissions. On November 6, the court detected a sharp increase in issues attributable to vehicular emissions.

It told the authorities that the thick smog, which later raised the city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) to almost the ‘severe’ category following Deepavali, had nowhere to go in the landlocked capital. The substantial commercial and non-commercial traffic entering Delhi would only compound the problem in the coming days.

“It must be borne in mind that Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), by virtue of their geographical and economic interconnectedness, bear the cumulative burden of vehicular traffic originating not merely within their own boundaries but also from the neighbouring States of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan,” the Supreme Court reminded the authorities in its latest order.

The issue warranted urgent and immediate intervention, the court said, directing the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the Delhi government, the Delhi Police (Traffic department), as well as the neighbouring States of Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh to file their responses on what they have done to regulate in the national capital the entry and plying of commercial and non-commercial vehicles.

The court wanted to know about measures to regulate traffic originating from outside the national capital. These include steps taken to identify, monitor, and regulate vehicles that do not conform to prescribed emission standards, and measures to prevent the entry and operation of overage, end-of-life, or non-compliant vehicles.

The Bench has specifically sought information on the measures undertaken against violations, including the number of vehicles inspected, challaned, denied entry, and the coordination mechanisms between the authorities of Delhi and the neighbouring States for regulating inter-State vehicular movement.

The court has asked if the authorities have any “further short-term and long-term measures proposed or contemplated to mitigate vehicular emissions and reduce their contribution to the deteriorating air quality in Delhi and the National Capital Region”.

Incidentally, two separate orders of the Supreme Court passed several months ago, on January 21 and February 23 this year, had contained detailed long-term and short-term measures recommended by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to mitigate air pollution, especially caused by vehicular emissions, in Delhi.

The January 21 order had listed various CAQM recommendations, including phasing out polluting vehicles from Delhi-NCR, fortifying the pollution-under-check regime, augmentation of rail transport and metro models, revised electric vehicle policy, among others.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, for CAQM, had, at the time, submitted that a meta-analysis of studies from 2015 to 2025 attributed PM2.5 in Delhi to a mix of primary emissions and secondary particulate formation from sources within the national capital region itself. The measures suggested by the CAQM included developing multi-modal transport hubs connecting the metro, Regional Rapid Transit System, and last-mile connectivity with a real-time passenger information system, higher incentives to owners for scrapping old vehicles, expansion in EV charging infrastructure, etc.

“We direct the concerned agencies, particularly, the MCD, to submit their immediate response as to why these measures be not implemented without any delay. Once again, we clarify that no objections will be entertained against the recommendations made by the CAQM,” the court had made its intent clear on January 21.

Subsequently, on February 23, the court directed the Delhi government and three Ministries – Environment, Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Commerce and Industry – to submit a joint proposal for shifting coal-based industries out of Delhi NCR. This direction was based on a CAQM recommendation to ban the establishment of new coal-based thermal power plants within a 300 km radius from Delhi.