The Supreme Court has criticised the Delhi government for delay in issuing new permits to thousands of bus and three-wheeler operators, who have applied for conversion of their vehicles to CNG mode. It would hear Delhi government's application today for seeking relaxation of the permit norm for seven days.
When the application was mentioned by additional solicitor general Kirit Raval on Tuesday morning, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice A S Anand asked as to why the government could not complete the work expeditiously but did not fix any time for hearing of the application. However, when it was mentioned again on Tuesday afternoon by Amicus Curiae in the case Harish Salve, the bench said that the application would be listed on Wednesday for hearing.
Raval said the work of issuing permits was enormous and the Delhi government needed three to four days` time to complete the task but pleaded that in the meantime the operators, who have filed affidavits in the apex court showing their bonafide for converting into CNG mode before September 30, be allowed to ply their present vehicles.

The Chief Justice said the Supreme Court registry worked till midnight for last three days to receive 27,442 applications from the bus and three-wheeler operators and of these 15,000 applications have already been sorted out.
Bureau Report