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The Supreme Court expressed its displeasure on large number of BS-IV vehicles being sold during the lockdown period.

The Supreme Court in 2018 ruled that all BS-IV vehicles would not be sold after March 2020.

The apex court earlier in March relaxed this deadline and allowed around 1 lakh cars to be sold across the country till March 31. It did not allow the selling of cars beyond this period.

However, car dealers and manufacturers continued to sell the BS-IV vehicles beyond the permissible limit which caused displeasure among the judges in Supreme Court.

The top court had on July 24 received requests from automobile dealers association that they should be allowed to sell the unsold BS-IV vehicles to the manufacturers so that they could be exported to other countries.

On July 8, the apex court recalled its order on March 27 when it allowed dealers to sell the vehicles for 10 more days and not beyond that. It said that they would not allow or pass orders for exporting the vehicles to other countries.

The apex court has observed that the car dealers have sold more than 2.55lakh BS IV vehicles were sold after March 27 despite its order to sell only 1 lakh vehicles till March 31.

On July 8, the Supreme Court had directed the Federation of Auto Dealer (FADA) to submit details on the sold out vehicles during the lockdown till March 31. However, the court has only received details of 17000 vehicles which were uploaded on the VAHAN portal.

Upon careful observation on this matter, the Supreme Court on Friday barred the registration of BS IV vehicles till further notice is served.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra took the decision and said that large number of cars was sold during lockdown beyond the permissible limit.

The apex court also sought details of advertisements made by the car dealers during the lockdown period and after, starting from March 31.

The court has set the next date of hearing for August 13.

The FADA while approaching the Supreme Court sought extension of the March 31 deadline due to loss of sales during the lockdown period. The FADA had also cited the reasons of loss of jobs, bankruptcy and sale loss.

Considering the request from FADA, the top court has extended the deadline further for 10 more days and asked the car dealers to sell 10% of their remaining stock in these 10 days.

The scenario developed as such because India has decide to end the production of BS IV vehicles and go for the world’s cleanest emissions starting from April 1, 2020. However, due to many vehicles being unsold Supreme Court had extended the deadline to sell the remaining vehicles till June 10.

India will now follow Euro-VI emission standards in its vehicles.

By Gayatri Yellayi