Toyota Tells NGT That Diesel vehicle Ban Impacts Company's Existence

The ban on diesel vehicles above 2,000cc by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has affected carmakers in India. Toyota is one company that has been affected the most and has told NGT that banning diesel vehicles in India is like "corporate death penalty" as it impacts the existence of the company.

In its plea, Toyota has mentioned saying that the ban on diesel vehicles is unfair and unjust, since the carmaker is complying with rules and regulations. Toyota also mentioned that such a restriction would affect the company and the livelihood of thousands of people engaged in the automobile sector.

Toyota said, "The applicant company is being penalised for no fault or violation on its part thereby making the order banning registration of diesel cars as unjust and unfair on the company."

"The imposition of ban on registration of diesel vehicles is in the nature of a corporate death penalty as it impacts the very existence of the company. A ban order is an extremely harsh/excessive punishment and ought to be imposed in circumstances where a party commits a serious violation and not when there is no violation."

The petition is likely to come up for hearing on August 2, headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar.

In a plea filed by advocates Vijay Sondhi and Cauveri Birbal, it says there is no link between engine capacity and emission levels, and as per the Motor Vehicles Act, "the engine capacity of a motor vehicle is not even a factor that is taken into consideration by the government for prescribing the applicable mass emission standards."

In December 2015, the NGT banned registration of diesel vehicles in the Delhi NCR region, and later, the Supreme Court ordered that diesel vehicles above 2,000cc will not have permission to be registered.

Source: PTI