The Supreme Court on Tuesday said in an interim order that no coercive action should be taken against the owners of diesel vehicles older than 10 years and of petrol vehicles older than 15 years in Delhi-National Capital Region, Live Law reported.

The matter will be heard again after four weeks, Bar and Bench reported.

The Delhi government has filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking a review of its order from 2018 that banned diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years in the city as part of efforts to curb air pollution. The ban came into effect July 1.

Under the directive, the end-of-life vehicles would not be allowed to refuel. To enforce the ban, automatic number plate recognition cameras were installed at nearly 350 petrol pumps across the national capital to detect such vehicles.

The petition submitted that there are now stricter pollution control measures in place, such as the enhanced coverage of the Pollution-Under-Control certificate system and implementation of Bharat Stage-VI standards, Bar and Bench reported.

The Delhi government further contended that the 2018 ban has caused practical hardships to a large number of people in Delhi who own vehicles that are otherwise compliant with pollution norms.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Delhi government, told the court on Tuesday that the ban on such vehicles was arbitrary, Live Law reported. He argued that while those who owned vehicles for personal use would have to sell them after 10 or 15 years, the same kind of vehicles could be used beyond the time limit if they were being used commercially.

Delhi’s Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the court’s interim order comes as a “big relief for residents of Delhi”, PTI reported.

Delhi has more than 62 lakh end-of-life vehicles, the Hindustan Times cited data from the government’s VAHAN database as having indicated.

Also read: Why Delhi’s crackdown on old vehicles may not be effective in tackling air pollution