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."