Delhi's pollution-check system certified vehicles that failed emissions tests as compliant, national auditors found
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A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) performance audit on preventing vehicular air pollution, tabled in the Delhi Legislative Assembly on 1 April 2025, found that between August 2015 and August 2020 about 1.08 lakh petrol/CNG/LPG vehicles were issued Pollution Under Control certificates despite carbon monoxide or hydrocarbon readings above legal limits, 4,007 diesel vehicles were passed despite out-of-range readings, and no test values were recorded for 24% of 22.14 lakh diesel vehicles checked. The audit also found 76,865 cases at the same centre where only one minute elapsed between testing and issuing a certificate, no government or third-party inspections of testing centres, monitoring stations sited contrary to Central Pollution Control Board guidelines (making Air Quality Index values unreliable), and that the Delhi Pollution Control Committee lacked the required minimum 16 hours a day of pollutant data and did not measure lead. Delhi's PUC enforcement remains a live issue; the city began refusing fuel to vehicles without valid certificates in December 2025.
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