Supreme Court recalls order allowing BS4 vehicle sales post lockdown; says only vehicles registered with VAHAN will be protected

The court observed that after exceeding the number of BS4 vehicles allowed for sale, FADA was now seeking for relaxation of the SC order to allow the registration of the vehicles.

FADA, on its part, argued that it was merely seeking registration of vehicles that were sold prior to the March 31 deadline, as prescribed by the government. FADA has submitted that as of March 31, member dealers have sold 94,000 BS4 vehicles, while non-member dealers have sold over 1.3 lakh BS4 vehicles. SC had allowed a prescribed a limit of 1.09 lakh.

In the last hearing, on June 16, SC had lashed out at FADA for flouting the prescribed conditions for the sale of BS4 inventory after the March 31 deadline. Justice Arun Mishra led bench of the SC had pulled up FADA for exceeding the quota of BS4 vehicle sales that had been allowed.

As per government notification, March 31 had been prescribed as a deadline for all automakers to switch from BS4 to BS6 emission norms. The notification had prescribed that sale and registration of BS4 vehicles would not be allowed beyond the March 31 deadline.

On March 27, SC allowed marginal relief to auto dealers and auto cos, permitting the sale of 10 percent unsold BS4 inventory. SC had directed the sale of BS4 inventory would be allowed for only 10 days post the lifting of the lockdown. SC also directed that all sold vehicles will have to be registered in no more than 10 days from the date of sale. SC had disallowed the sale of any BS4 inventory in the Delhi-NCR region.

SC had relaxed the March 31 deadline, on the back of an urgent plea by FADA. FADA had made an urgent appeal before the apex court to relax the deadline by 30 days after the lifting of the lockdown. The FADA, citing Force Majeure circumstances, argued that the lockdown owing to the Coronavirus had kept the dealers from being able to sell the existing inventory.

FADA argued that the lockdown had translated into over 15,000 unsold BS4 commercial vehicles and over 12,000 unsold BS4 passenger vehicles. The number of unsold BS4 two-wheelers was pegged at over 7 lakhs by FADA. FADA had pleaded before the SC that unsold inventory accounted for over Rs 7,000 crore.