SC bans sale and registration of BS-III vehicles from April 1

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 29

The Supreme Court on Wednesday banned sale and registration of BS-III emission norm-compliant vehicles from April 1, the date fixed for BS-IV emission norms to come into effect.

A bench headed by Justice M.B. Lokur rejected the plea of automobile companies to allow them to sell 8.2 lakh vehicles lying in their factories and showrooms.

“Health of citizens is more important than commercial interest of auto manufacturers....we cannot allow polluting vehicles to ply on roads,” the bench said.

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Companies were aware that BS-IV norm would come in force from April 1 but they chose not to take steps to upgrade technology, it noted.

The verdict came on Environment Pollution Control Authority’s plea seeking ban on sale and registration of BS-III emission norm-complaint vehicles after April 1.

BS-III and BS-IV emission norms were implemented in India in 2005 and 2010, respectively.

Read: Auto firms scramble to liquidate stocks of BS III vehicles

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Hero MotoCorp and Tata had contended that the cut-off date was meant for stopping the manufacturing of BS-III compliant vehicles and it did not mean sale and registration. To buttress their point, they said it happened so during the transition from BS-II to BS-III.

The Centre had supported their contention.

The top court accepted the arguments of amicus curiae Harish Salve and Aprajita Singh, who had demanded a complete ban on sale and registration of BS-III vehicles from April 1 in the interest of environment and health of citizens.

It is estimated that companies hold 8.2 lakh BS-III vehicles, including 96,724 commercial ones, 6,71,308 two-wheelers, 40,048 three-wheelers and 16,198 cars.

Bajaj Auto had supported ban on sale of BS-III vehicles and opposed the plea of its rival firms, saying it had invested a lot in technology upgrade to meet the requirements of BS-IV emission norms.

SIAM and certain individual carmakers wanted the court to relax the deadline while the EPCA opposed their plea. 

As the news of ban on sale and registration of BS-III vehicles broke, shares of automobile companies nosedived.

EPCA–a Supreme Court-appointed body–had told the court that since the issuance of notifications on the issue, the carmakers had enough time to adhere to the new norms and the court must enforce the notification as Indian cities were among the worst polluted.

“Out of the top 20 polluted cities, 10 are in India,” the EPCA counsel had told the bench.

On Tuesday, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar had told the bench that India would straightaway move from BS-IV to BS-VI and the government would spend more than Rs 80,000 crore on it.

The Centre had on Monday told the Supreme Court that EPCA should have approached it for a clarification on its statutory rules related to the deadline for the all India rollout of BS-IV.

Since 2005 the government had been issuing notifications for phase-wise implementation of BS-IV, but EPCA never sought an interpretation, the Solicitor General had said. 

“Our statutory rules have been in place. Notifications were issued from time to time, but nobody asked us for an interpretation,” Kumar had said, adding that a complete implementation of BS-IV technology did not mean the existing BS-III vehicles should be taken off the road.