SC Allows Sale Of 10% Of Unsold BS-IV Vehicles For 10 Days After Lockdown In Regions Except Delhi-NCR [Read Order]

In a slight relief for the automobile industry, the Supreme Court on Friday granted some relaxations to the March 31 deadline for the sale and registration of BS IV vehicles.

The Court allowed the sale of 10% of unsold  BS IV compliant vehicles for 10 days, after the end of the 21-days countrywide lockdown.

However, such sale is not permissible in Delhi-National Capital Region. Sold BS IV vehicles have to be registered within 10 days of sale. BS IV vehicles brought before March 31 can be registered later too.

The court passed the order in a petition moved by Federation of Automobiles Dealers Association (FADA), which sought 30 days extension of March 31 deadline, citing lockdown.

The FADA submitted that 7 lakh two wheelers, 15,000 passenger cars, and 12,000 commercial vehicles were remaining unsold.

The FADA sought for an extension of 30 days, saying that the business will be badly affected otherwise, leading to job losses and insolvencies.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta, which heard the matter on Friday through video-conferencing, made it clear however that no BS IV vehicles will be allowed to be sold in Delhi-NCR from April 1, 2020.

"Sales to be done within ten days of the lifting of the lock-down 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. If out of the vehicles which are  permitted to be sold some of them remain unsold then obviously there is no question of any further extension of time for sale of these kind of vehicles. 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 that concerns of the environment should be given priority.

"With respect to unsold vehicles as the manufacturer should have been ready because of deadline set for BS-VI compliant vehicles, there is no justification to extend the time which was fixed long time ago. 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 31st March, 2020", observed the bench.

Bharat Stage (BS) emission norms are standards instituted by the government to regulate output of air pollutants from motor vehicles. The BS-IV norms have been enforced across the country since April 2017.

From April 1, 2020, BS-VI norms will come into force.

Click here to download the Order