Supreme Court verdict on the sale of BS4 vehicles, learn 5 big things

Recently, the Supreme Court, while ruling in favor of the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), has made it easier for the sale of BS4 vehicles by waiving the deadline of 31 March. Earlier, the top court had also refused to hear FADA’s appeal, although dealers with a nationwide coronavirus lockdown had a large number of BS4 inventories and no way to finish the inventory before March 31.

Apart from this, there are many customers who have bought BS4 vehicles, but could not register them due to 21 days of lockdown. Therefore, on 27 March, the Supreme Court heard the appeal of FADA and in view of the special circumstances, it has decided to give 10 days more after the end of the ongoing 21 days lockdown to sell BS4 vehicles.

1. Fada’s counsel was before the Supreme Court Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Deepak Gupta for hearing the video conference. Fada said 15,000 passenger cars, 12,000 commercial vehicles, 7 lakh two-wheelers are at stake and the auto industry is already reeling and now showrooms are closed due to the coronavirus epidemic. In such a situation, the FADA was asking for at least one more month, although the court said that there is no point in extending the time limit for the sale of BS4 vehicles and putting a burden on the environment.

2. However, given the special circumstances, the Supreme Court stated that it will allow dealers to sell BS4 vehicles only for 10 days after the lockdown ends. The 21-day lockdown period will end on April 14, after which dealers will only have time to finish the BS4 inventory by April 24.

3. The court also said in its order that dealers can sell only 10 percent of BS4 inventory. Apart from this, no BS4 vehicle will be sold in Delhi-NCR. This means that about 90 percent of the BS6 inventory will remain unsold. This ruling by the court is only on the remaining stock of BS4 vehicles. At the same time, from April 1, 2020, only BS6 vehicles will be manufactured.

4. Apart from this, the apex court has also ruled that the BS4 vehicle which has been sold and not registered should also be registered within 10 days. This means those who have purchased BS4 vehicles before the lockdown and have not been able to register, can register after the lockdown ends.

5. The two-wheeler industry is the only one that has a BS4 inventory of around Rs 4600 crore, while dealers have an inventory of about 8,35,000 units left.