Mercedes, Toyota and Mahindra Approach Supreme Court against the Ban

Facing the heat of ban imposed by the Supreme Court, automakers like Toyota, Mahindra and Mercedes have approached the highest court to reconsider its order. The plea comes at a time when Supreme Court has declared that private cars having a diesel engine of capacity 2,000cc or more cannot be registered in Delhi. Initially, the ban has been imposed for a period of three months and the further decision on this ban will be taken based on the observations made during this period. Besides this, the Court also announced that all the taxis in Delhi have to be converted to CNG latest by March 31, 2016. The petition filed by the three car makers against the ban is due to be heard tomorrow.

Expressing his disappointment over the ban, Pawan Goenka, director of Mahindra & Mahindra had said, "We do not know why diesel is made to look like a culprit even though the vehicles are meeting stipulated government norm.," He further added, "When a product is meeting all the laws of the land, how can there be a ban? There was no consultation with representatives of the auto industry before this kind of a move. We do not know what to do with the cars parked at dealerships and hope there is a clarification on this very soon."

Vishnu Mathur, director general of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) added his voice and had said, “Auto industry is the soft target. In the past several years whatever courts have asked us to do, we have done that. There won’t be any visible results if we don’t come up with a holistic plan.”

The three companies appealing are some of the worst hit companies by the restriction. While Mercedes has lost almost its entire lineup of SUVs, Mahindra is missing cars like Scorpio, XUV500 and Bolero. Even Toyota lost two of its best-selling cars as Fortuner and Innova both have diesel engine capacity of more than 2 litres.

Also Read: Mahindra Crippled in Delhi as Diesel Ban Piles up Cars worth Rs. 1,000 Crore