SC allows sale of ten percent of unsold BS IV vehicles except Delhi-NCR for 10 days after lockdown

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the sale of BS-IV vehicles for 10 more days across the country, except in Delhi-NCR, after the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic is lifted, providing a major relief to automobile dealers who had sought more time to clear the inventory. The court said it is permitting the sale of 10 per cent of the vehicles to make up for the six days lost due to lockdown since March 25. It had set the deadline to phase out Bharat Stage-IV vehicles by March 31.

On Friday, it told the manufacturers they should have been ready by now as the deadline was fixed a long time ago, but extended the deadline after hearing a plea by Federation of Automobile Dealers' Association (FADA), which had sought more time to clear the inventory as the lockdown was unexpected. BS emission norms are standards instituted by the government to regulate output of air pollutants from motor vehicles.

India has decided to switch to the world's cleanest petrol and diesel from April 1 as it leapfrogs straight to Euro-VI emission compliant fuels from Euro-IV grades now — a feat achieved in just three years and not seen in any of the large economies around the globe. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta, which heard the FADA plea via a video-link, said, "This is not something new which has occurred, it would be further injurious and further burden on human health to be caused by pollution of BS-IV vehicles, when BS-VI vehicles are supposed to be produced by the manufacturers well in advance considering the deadline of March 31, 2020." The bench told FADA that there shall be no violation of its order.

"Sales to be done within ten days of the lifting of the lockdown operating in the concerned cities and not beyond it and on an affidavit number of vehicles sold shall be stated by the applicant/Federation of Automobile Dealers Association and only those vehicles shall be permitted to be registered about which affidavit is filed,” the bench said.

The top court made it clear that there is no question of further extension even if some of the vehicles remained unsold after the extended 10 days.

"Particulars shall be given on an affidavit with engine and chassis numbers by the applicant/Federation of Automobile Dealers Association of the sale of vehicles before the registration is made, within seven days of the sale,” the bench said.

While Additional Solicitor General ANS Nadkarni, appeared for the Centre from Goa, senior advocate K V Vishwanathan appearing for FADA from his office. The court noted the submission of Vishwanathan that there are 7 lakh two-wheelers, 15,000 passenger vehicles and 12,000 unsold vehicles throughout India with different dealers. He said 1.5 lakh two-wheelers, 2,250 passenger cars and 2,000 commercial vehicles have been sold but not registered yet due to the lockdown and other reasons.

Nadkarni said people might have faced hardship in registering their vehicles due to the lockdown and therefore time till end of April or May, be provided. The court ordered that sold vehicles be registered by April 30 and FADA should furnish affidavits with details of the buyers and registration of the vehicles through e-mail, within seven days from today.

It disposed the two applications filed by FADA and Honda India seeking modification of the court's order of October 24, 2018, by which it had fixed the March 31, 2020, deadline for sale and registration of BS-IV vehicles. On February 14, the court rejected the plea filed by an association of automobile dealers seeking extension of the March 31 deadline by one month.

The court in October 2018 said no BS-IV vehicle would be sold or registered in India from April 1, 2020. In 2016, the Centre announced that India would skip the BS-V norms and adopt BS-VI by 2020. The court has said any extension in introducing new emission norms would adversely impact the health of citizens as the pollution has reached an "alarming and critical" level. It has said the health of citizens has to take precedence over the "greed" of a few automobile manufacturers.