Delhi pollution

Supreme Court order freezes sale and registration of BS-III vehicles from April 1, 2017

The Supreme Court of India has ordered freezing sales and registration of BS-III vehicles starting April 1, 2017. Hearing a plea by the automobile manufacturers that they had a combined stockpile of 8.02 lakh vehicles in their inventory, the court said, “The health of the citizen is more important than the commercial interests of the automobile industry.” April 1st is also the day when the more environmentally friendly BS-IV fuel emission norms will kick in. The judgement will cause a huge setback to vehicle manufacturers, who have been trying hard to clear off the pile of BS-III vehicles before April 1st, offering unheard of discounts in the process.

A Bench, led by Justice Madan B. Lokur, pronounced the operative part of their judgment. Although the Centre too stood by manufacturers and favored the ides of selling the existent stock of BS-III vehicles. In contrast, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar submitted that it was done twice before when fuel emissions norms were upgraded to BS-II and BS-III, respectively. And although vehicle manufacturers had prior notice of the change in emission norms , they did not slow down the production of BS-III vehicles.

Monitoring the alarming increase in air pollution levels, the court had pointed out that the new fuel was “cleaner” and state run oil refineries had spent about Rs 30,000 crore since 2010 to produce it. The court even asked automobile companies not to frustrate the government’s initiative to check increasing levels of pollution by selling BS-III vehicles.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) had submitted data on the manufacturing and sale of BS-III vehicles on a monthly basis from January 2016 and told the court that the companies were holding stock of around 8.24 lakh such vehicles, including 96,000 commercial vehicles, over six lakh two-wheelers and around 40,000 three-wheelers. The manufacturers appealed to the court that in a similar situation when the industry switched to BS-II and BS-III in 2005 and 2010, they were allowed to sell their stocks with old emission norms.

With inputs from: The Hindu

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