Sale Of BS-IV Vehicles in India – Burning Issues

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BHARAT STAGE EMISSION

Bharat stage emission standards (BSES) are emission standards instituted by the Government of India to regulate the output of air pollutants from compression ignition engines and Spark-ignition engines equipment, including motor vehicles.
The standards and the timeline for implementation are set by the Central Pollution Control Board under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. BS VI
Since October 2010, Bharat Stage (BS) III norms have been enforced across the country. In 13 major cities, Bharat Stage IV emission norms have been in place since April 2010 and it has been enforced for entire country since April 2017.
In 2016, the Indian government announced that the country would skip the BS V norms altogether and adopt BS VI norms by 2020.

As per Bharat Stage-6 norms, the emission of carbon monoxide is to be reduced by 30% and NOx by 80%. The BS-6 norms also sets limits for Hydrocarbon and particulate emissions, which were not specified in earlier norms.
As per the Bharat Stage-6 norms, the NOx emissions from a diesel engines are to be reduced by 70% and particulates by 80%. To achieve this, the engines need to be equipped with Euro-6 compliant technologies

The Supreme Court on Monday made it clear that no sale and registration of BS-IV vehicles will be permitted in the country as it pulled up the Automobile Dealers Association for violating its order that had given some limited relaxation.
More than 2,25,000 vehicles were waiting for registration as on March 31 and this exceeded the figure which it had specified.

It had allowed registration of 1.05 lakh two-wheelers, 2,250 passenger cars and 2,000 commercial vehicles which were sold but not registered across the country.
Observing that pollution from Bharat Stage(BS)-IV vehicles would be “injurious” and a “further burden on human health”, it took umbrage over the “violation” of its March 27 order by which it had allowed sale of limited number of these vehicles for 10 days across India, except in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), after lifting of the Covid-19 lockdown.
The court in October 2018 said no BS-IV vehicle would be sold or registered in India from April 1, 2020.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and S Abdul Nazeer, which heard the matter on Monday through video-conferencing, said it is “startling” to note that even after lifting of the lockdown on May 3, “when the sales have taken place and as per our order, no registration could have been made without informing this court as to how many vehicles have been sold throughout India.”
“It is made clear that now no registration and sale of the BS-IV vehicles is permitted,” the bench said.
It said that registration of vehicles, which were to be sold out of the permitted 10 per cent, cannot be made without its permission and without giving particulars as ordered by the court in March.

“This court further observed that this is not something new which has occurred,” it noted, adding, “It would be further injurious and further burden on human health to be caused by pollution from BSIV vehicles when BS-VI vehicles are supposed to be produced by the manufactures well in advance, considering the deadline of March 31, 2020”.
The bench asked Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, to collect details from all the RTOs and furnish information about how many BS-IV vehicles were sold and registered after lifting of the lockdown.
The bench posted the matter for hearing on June 19.