The Supreme Court again reinforced preservation of environment by banning the sale and registration of Bharat Stage III (BS-III) vehicles from April 1, by the time BS-IV emission norms will come into force across the country, reiterating that health of citizens is more important than commercial interests.
This decision came from a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta saying that BS-III vehicles could aggravate the already deteriorating air quality in the country and such a step was needed to handle the menace of pollution. This decision has worried the automobile manufactures, they will be hit hard.
The court remained steadfast and rejected the plea of automakers to allow them to dispose of existing stocks of 8.2 lakh BS-III vehicles and emphasized on the health concerns of millions of people.
The companies are left with option to export the vehicles or turn them to scrap. As of now the companies have a stock of 8,24,275 BS-III vehicles, which include 96,724 commercial vehicles, 6,71,308 two-wheelers, 40,048 three-wheelers and 16,198 cars.
The companies admitted that the present stocks do not comply when BS-IV emission norms to be enforced from April 1st. The support for the auto companies came from the Centre, the Centre asked for permission to continue with their sales as the notification was meant to shut down the manufacturing of BS-III vehicles after March 31an d not disrupt the companies transactions of existing stocks of BS-III Vehicles. The Centre failed to provide respite to the companies.
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