Delhi High Court refuses to stay ban on non-Delhi BS-VI vehicles during winter

The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to stay a Delhi government notification barring vehicles registered outside the national capital and falling below BS-VI emission standards from plying in the city during the winter months [Gurmukh Dass Kohli v Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi and Ors].

A Faridabad-based lawyer has approached the High Court against the ban.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma said that the plea will be heard on November 27.

On that day, another similar matter is coming up for hearing.

A lawyer named Gurmukh Dass Kohli has approached the High Court challenging paragraph 4 of a June 23, 2026, notification issued by the Delhi government’s Department of Environment and Forests under the Environment (Protection) Act.

According to this provision, vehicles registered outside Delhi and below BS-VI standards are prohibited from entering the capital from November 1 to January 31 every year.

Kohli says that he owns a BS-IV petrol Volkswagen Polo registered in Haryana. He argued that the restriction discriminates between vehicles based on their place of registration rather than their actual emissions.

He contended that an otherwise comparable BS-IV vehicle registered in Delhi is not subject to the same prohibition.

The plea also argued that the blanket three-month restriction operates irrespective of daily air quality and is inconsistent with the Commission for Air Quality Management's revised Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which provides for staged restrictions based on pollution levels.

The petitioner has alleged that the Delhi government's notification violates Articles 14, 19(1)(d) and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution.

Advocates Anurag Saxena, Sonica Ghosh and Deepak Atrey appeared for the petitioner.

The Delhi government was represented through its Standing Counsel Sameer Vashisht.