New Delhi: Supreme Court on Friday ordered the ban on registration of BS-IV vehicles till further orders. 

Expressing displeasure on the sale of large number of vehicles in March during Covid-19 lockdown, the SC said that an unusual number of BS-IV vehicles were sold during the time.

SC has posted the matter for next hearing on August 13.

In its last hearing on July 24, the SC gave more time to centre to file affidavit of Vaahan data on registration of Bharat Stage (BS)-IV vehicles.

The top court had also rejected FADA’s request to allow exports to African countries. Auto dealer association FADA had knocked SC doors urging the court to reconsider decision on disallowing sale and registration of BS-4 vehicles with effect from April 1, 2020. 

The apex court in its hearing observed that manufacturers were aware about BS VI deadline, hence they should take the vehicles back. 

The SC on July 8 had recalled its March 27 order by which it had allowed sale of BS-IV vehicles for 10 days across India, except in Delhi-NCR, after lifting of COVID-19 induced lockdown, a directive which will impact registration of many of these vehicles. The top court had on March 27 said it was permitting sale of 10 percent of unsold BS-IV vehicles to make up for six days lost due to the nationwide lockdown which was imposed on March 25.

The SC bench had said Bharat Stage (BS)-IV vehicles sold after March 31 this year and those whose details have not been uploaded on the e-Vahan portal of the government will not be registered. In October 2018, the court had said no BS-IV vehicle would be sold or registered in India from April 1, 2020.

In its July 8 hearing the court had observed that details of more than 17,000 vehicles have not been uploaded on the government’s e-Vahan portal. The bench said it would ask the government to check the e-Vahan data and would allow registration of those BS-IV vehicles, whose details are uploaded on the portal till March 31. It also asked the government to place before it the data of vehicles which were uploaded on the e-Vahan portal after 31 March. The court asked the automobile dealers association to furnish details of vehicles sold by them to the government.

Bharat Stage (BS) emission norms are standards instituted by the government to regulate output of air pollutants from motor vehicles. The BS-IV norms have been enforced across the country since April, 2017. In 2016, the Centre had announced that India would skip the BS-V norms altogether and adopt BS-VI norms by 2020.