The Supreme Court on Monday prohibited the plying of 15-year-old petrol vehicles and 10-year-old diesel vehicles in the National Capital Region, describing the air pollution in Delhi as “horrible” and “very critical”.

The court directed the transport department to announce that such vehicles would be impounded if driven in Delhi-NCR.

The top court’s directive, in line with an earlier National Green Tribunal order, extends to private vehicles a ban that till now applied only to commercial vehicles, analysts tracking air pollution said.

The court directed the Central Pollution Control Board and the transport department to publish a list of all 15-year-old petrol and 10-year-old diesel vehicles. The bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, S. Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta said that an advertisement on this should be published in newspapers.

“This ruling upholds the NGT’s earlier order. It is part of a process of phasing out old polluting vehicles while bringing in stringent new emissions standards for new vehicles,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director for research at the non-government Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi.

She said the number of vehicles likely to be affected could run into “thousands”.

Environmental experts have long complained that inspections are not sufficient to ensure low emissions.

Operators of commercial vehicles agree. “Everyone knows that you can get a pollution-free certificate even if there is an emissions problem with the vehicle,” said a taxi operator.

The Supreme Court bench directed the CPCB to create a social media account for citizens to lodge complaints about pollution, on which the authorities could take action.

The bench referred to media reports that said people should not go out for morning walks because of the pollution. “Have you gone to Old Delhi railway station? Poor people there have to work to earn their livelihood. The kind of exertion they undergo is much more than those walking in the morning at Lodhi Gardens,” the bench told additional solicitor-general A.N.S. Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre.

“They are doing heavy-duty manual work. You cannot tell them ‘you stop your work because it is unsafe for you to work in the morning’. This is a very critical situation,” the bench said. “It is horrible.”