Supreme Court suggests 'hum do humare do' family planning for cars

Taking the concept of family planning campaign “Hum Do Humare Do” to the next level, the country’s apex court on Friday expressed concern over the idea of one person having multiple cars. "There should be a family planning of cars. Hum do humare do," said Justice Arun Mishra. A two-judge bench of Justice Mishra and Justice Deepak Gupta was hearing a plea seeking the lifting of a one lakh registration cap on three-wheelers. The plea came to light after Bajaj Auto offered to introduce BS VI autos citing that it would strengthen the transport system in Delhi.

During the course of proceedings, Justice Mishra observed that an earning hand having a car is understandable but one man having five cars is not understandable. "Hence the campaign of 'Hum do humare do' must be applied on cars as well, there should be a family planning of cars a household possesses."

Speaking further on the topic, the bench was told that there were 32 lakh vehicles and more were being added every day. "Such a huge number of vehicles not only increases traffic and pollution but problems about parking are also increased", they observed. On the solution of multi-level parking, they said that it has not succeeded as people prefer to park vehicles at any available space.

Aparajita Singh, senior counsel and amicus curiae in environment matter pressed on the need for parking policy in the national capital suggesting that various civic bodies can started it as pilot project. Referring to the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) report, Singh said that the per-capita emission of public transport vehicles was lower than private vehicles:

"It is estimated that while two-wheelers and cars travel 50-60 kilometres per day on an average three-wheelers travel 120 km/day buses 210 km/day and taxis like Ola and Uber some 400 km/day. The cap on registration of three-wheelers may be removed immediately provided that the vehicles are BS-VI CNG/petrol/LPG etc or battery operated," the report said.

The Bench, however, was not moved by the argument and wanted to know the basis for fixing the cap and to what extent it can be relaxed in the present circumstances with nearly 3,000 buses of different category joining the public transport apart from expanding metro services. The bench observed that to keep Delhi as a livable place, congestion on roads must be decreased.

(inputs from PTI)