Sale of BS-VI non-compliant vehicles should stop from April 1, 2020: Centre to SC

The sale and manufacture of BS-VI non-compliant vehicles in India should not be allowed from April 1, 2020 as it would lessen environmental benefits to be accrued from using cleaner BS-VI fuel, the Centre today told the Supreme Court.

In an affidavit filed in the apex court, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) said that it would not be possible to segregate pricing of diesel or have a differential pricing mechanism for the fuel for private vehicles.

The ministry told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that sale and manufacture of BS (Bharat stage)-VI non-compliant vehicles from April 1, 2020 would have an adverse affect since investment of around Rs 28,000 crore has already been made for having a cleaner BS-VI fuel.

Meanwhile, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) referred to a government notification of February 20 this year which said that registration of private vehicles manufactured up to April 1, 2020 should be done till June 30, 2020.

Advocate Aparajita Singh, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, raised the issue of Delhi reeling under air pollution and said that people were dying due to its ill-effects.

Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, said that time till June 2020 has been given for registration of BS-IV vehicles manufactured up to March 2020.

"If BS-VI fuel is used in BS-IV vehicles, the environmental benefit of having a cleaner fuel would become marginal. After March 31, 2020, sale of non-compliant BS-VI vehicles should not be allowed," Nadkarni said.

When the counsel appearing for SIAM referred to the reduction of time given to the automobile manufacturers to jump to BS-VI from BS-IV, the bench said, "When this issue had cropped up, there was strong opposition from you."