Review petition filed with Supreme Court over BS III vehicles' order

The move comes after the SC banned sale, registration of non-BS IV compliant vehicles from April 1

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Thursday said that it has approached the Supreme Court to plead for a review of its judgement issued over the BS III vehicles.

In a statement, SIAM said that it has filed a review petition with the apex court to point out "certain facts" that were not covered in the judgment.

The move comes after the apex court banned the sale and registration of non-BS IV compliant vehicles from April 1, 2017.

According to the industry association, the Supreme Court has "erroneously construed" an office memorandum from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (dated March 3, 2017) to be an office memorandum dated March 3, 2015.

This "erroneously construed" office memorandum led to the misunderstanding that the government had "sent a clear message" to the manufacturers to stop production of BS III vehicles before April 1, 2017, the industry association said.

"Whereas this was a government assurance given three weeks before the judgement, that unsold stocks of BS III vehicles which were in the pipeline, would be permitted to be sold and registered even after 1st April 2017 as has been done even when BS II and BS III were implemented," the statement said.

"Acting on the representations made on such clarification issued by the government of India as late as in March 2017, as well as the plain reading of the rules, the manufacturers had a reasonable and legitimate expectation that unsold inventories of BS III stocks could be sold even after 1st April, 2017, and until such stocks were exhausted."

SIAM highlighted in the review petition that the staggered phase-in of BS IV emission norms for vehicles was not done to help the auto industry as mentioned in the judgment.

"This staggering was done to ensure that adequate capacities for the BS IV fuel supply get established to expand the coverage of fuel availability to other parts of the country as per the roadmap agreed with the oil industry," the statement said.

SIAM elaborated that the Supreme Court has further based its judgment on an assumption that there will be 80 per cent reduction in emissions of PM (particulate matter) between BS III and BS IV standards.

"Though it may be true for only heavy vehicles, but such reduction is much less in other categories of vehicles," the statement said.

In the petition, SIAM stated that the auto industry has invested Rs 25,000 crore to upgrade vehicle technologies to BS IV level and was therefore an equal contributor in ensuring the improvement in the environment.