Govt's response sought on plea against implementation of EVP, FAME-India scheme

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Central government over a petition challenging the implementation of the Electric Vehicle Policy (EVP) and FAME India scheme. The petition in this regard was jointly filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, Common Cause and Sitaram Jindal Foundation.

The petitioners have sought directions to the central government to strictly mandate the creation of requisite charging infrastructure and cross-subsidization of Electric Vehicles by charging a marginal fee on fossil fuel based vehicles. Prashant Bhushan, who appeared on the behalf of the three petitioners, told the Court that a modest target of the sale of 7 million Electric Vehicles was set by the 2012 plan, under FAME-India scheme but only 0.263 million vehicles have been sold as of January 2019, showing a total failure of that scheme.

He also brought to the attention of the Court that the 2012 plan had called for an investment of 14,500 crores from the government to kick start demand and creation of charging Infrastructure. But in December 2018, the government informed the Parliament that it had thus far allocated 600 crores. Taking note of the petitioners’ contentions, a division bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and also comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna asked the Centre to file the reply within four weeks.

(With inputs from agencies.)