Bhubaneswar, January 27: The State Government on Tuesday informed the Orissa High Court that it has withdrawn its directive that denied petrol and diesel to vehicles without a valid Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate.
The High Court took note of the State Government's affidavit which submitted that the earlier instruction to fuel stations not to give fuel to motorists without PUC has been withdrawn.
The submission came during the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the legality of the "No PUC, No Fuel" move in the State which has trigegred a massive outage across the State.
Earlier on January 6, the High Court issued notice to the Transport commissioner-cum-Chairman of the State Transport Authority (STA), seeking its response to a PIL challenging the State Government’s directive that petrol and diesel should not be supplied to vehicles without a valid Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC).
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice MS Raman directed the authority to file an affidavit clarifying its stand on the legality of the December 20, 2025 notification of the State Government within 15 days.
The PIL sought quashing of the STA notification that asked all oil marketing companies to enforce the ‘no PUCC, no fuel’ rule at retail outlets across the State.
However, the Transport Commissioner maintained that authorities still retain the power to withhold issuance of a PUC certificate if the prescribed fine is not paid. The Commissioner argued that this authority flows from Section 167 of the Motor Vehicles Act.
Rejecting this contention, the High Court observed that Section 167 does not empower officials to deny a PUC certificate on such grounds. Taking serious note of the issue, the High Court directed that necessary changes be made to the Paribahan Portal to bring it in line with the law.
The Transport Commissioner has been instructed to carry out the required amendment and file a fresh affidavit confirming compliance. The matter will come up for further hearing next week.
