HC stays order banning plying of diesel school buses in Patna

The Patna High Court has stayed the order banning plying of diesel buses for ferrying school children from September 1 till further orders.

The court ordered stay on the notification, published in the state gazette on February 23, to ban diesel school buses while hearing a petition by the Association of independent schools. The order given on Monday was uploaded on Wednesday.

The next date of hearing is October 7.

Through the government order, all diesel school buses were prohibited from plying throughout the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) areas and the adjoining Danapur, Khagaul and Phulwari Sharif Nagar Parishad.

The counsel for the petitioner stated that without taking into consideration the ground realities, viz. age of buses, availability of authorised agencies for conversion into Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and facilities for CNG filling, the authorities directed all the owners of the diesel school buses to stop plying them till the buses were converted.

Maintaining that the conversion from diesel to CNG by local mechanics was fraught with big risk, the counsel argued that while the authorities issued the notification banning the plying of vehicles in the city, they were still registering diesel vehicles and granting permits.

“The petitioners have made out a prima facie case for grant of interim order. Accordingly, there shall be interim direction to the authorities not to give effect to the ban order till the next date of hearing and they shall permit the diesel school buses to run without causing any impediment,” said the bench of Justice A Abhishek Reddy.

In a bid to check the deteriorating air quality in Patna, the government had earlier directed the schools to do away with diesel-run buses or mini-buses and replace them with CNG vehicles from September 1.

In Patna, barring a selected few, most schools depend on outsourced transportation facility using diesel buses. Due to limited CNG filling stations and even fewer facilities for conversion of buses from diesel to CNG, the sudden ban was not found feasible and the association moved the court for relief.

The state government has already phased out all diesel-run auto-rickshaws and public buses in Patna.