No Bharat Stage IV Vehicle Shall Be Sold From April 1, 2020: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said no Bharat Stage IV vehicle shall be sold across the country with effect from April 1, 2020.

The Bharat stage emission standards are instituted by the government to regulate output of air pollutants from motor vehicles. The Bharat Stage VI emission norm will come into force from April 1, 2020.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur made it clear that only BS VI compliant vehicles shall be sold in the country from April 1, 2020.

The bench said the need of the hour was to move to a cleaner fuel. In 2016, the central government had announced that the country would skip the BS V norms and adopt BS VI norms by 2020.

The apex court was deciding whether a grace period should be given to automakers for the sale of BS VI non-compliant vehicles after April 1, 2020.

At a previous hearing, advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the top court as an amicus curiae in the air pollution matter, had opposed the government's move to give time till June 30, 2020 to automakers to sell their BS VI non-compliant four-wheelers manufactured till March 31, 2020.

The amicus had also opposed the government's proposal to give grace period till Sept. 30, 2020 for the sale of BS VI non-compliant heavy transport vehicles.

The automobile makers had justified the grace period to sell their vehicles contending that India was leapfrogging from BS IV emission norms to BS VI within a short time. The manufacturers had argued that they were allowed to make BS IV vehicles till March 31, 2020 and they should be granted reasonable time to sell their stock.