SC reserves order on plea for ban on registration of BS III emission norm vehicles

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order on a plea seeking ban on the registration of BS-III emission vehicles from April 1, 2017, even as automobile manufacturers opposed the plea saying they needed a window to exhaust their existing inventory of BS III vehicles.

The bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta reserved the order after the automobile manufacturers told the court that they need six to eight months to sell their existing inventory of BS III vehicles.

The manufacturers have also contended that if all the vehicles in the their stocks are allowed to be sold and registered, their contribution to pollution would be microscopic - much less than one percent of the existing pollution.

The ban on the sale and registration of BS III vehicles was sought in an application moved by senior counsel Harish Salve, who is amicus curiae in the air pollution matter.

Salve had earlier told the court that most of the automobile manufacturers continued with the production of BS III emission norm vehicles even as the March 31, 2017, deadline for halt to their production was approaching.

Salve had told the court that there were 16,000 BS III cars, 96,720 trucks, 40,000 three-wheelers and 6,71,000 two-weelers.

The court said that it would pronounce its order on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM), Tata Motors, Honda, Yamaha and the dealers' body have opposed ban on sale of BS III vehicles after March 31, contending that they would suffer losses by curbs on the registration of their BS III emission norm vehicles.

The Centre had on March 27 told the court that the March 31, 2017, deadline was for the production of BS III vehicles but their sale can continue beyond the March 31 deadline.

The top court had on March 24 indicated that it may allow the sale of vehicles with BS III emission norms after imposing a charge to reimburse Rs 18,000 crore that the government had spent for upgrading the refineries to produce BS IV-compliant fuel.

The court had said that the money to be collected by imposing charge could be close to Rs 30,000 crore, as it would involve the cost that the government incurred in upgrading the refineries to migrate to Bharat Stage (BS) IV-compliant fuel across the country and the cost of the health of the people.

The court had also indicated on March 24 that it may allow the registration of BS III-compliant commercial vehicles to operate with no national permit and a rider that they would not enter major cities.

--IANS

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