Shivani Thakur
Published on: April 19, 2022 at 15:17 IST
The Bombay High Court cancelled all Blacklisting Orders issued by the Regional Transport Office (RTO) against several Bharat Stage-IV (BS-IV) compliant vehicles which were sold as second-hand sales after the Supreme Court mandated deadline of March 31, 2020
The Petitions filed by vehicle owners, primarily those associated with distributors challenging the orders of blacklisting and cancelling Registration of their Bharat Stage-IV compliant vehicles.
In 2018, the Supreme Court had directed the Central and State governments not to permit sale or registration of motor vehicles conforming to the emission standard Bharat Stage-IV across the Country with effect from April 1, 2020.
Both Bharat Stage-IV and Bharat Stage-VI are unit emission norms that set the maximum permissible levels for pollutants that an automotive or a two-wheeler exhaust can emit.
The Division Bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar, however, directed reinstatement of the revoked Registrations.
“…once these vehicles fall in the class of legitimately registered and permissible Bharat Stage-IV compliant vehicles, are they prohibited from what is in effect a used-car or second-hand sale. This does not seem to have been prohibited by the Supreme Court Orders,” the Order stated.
The Bench explained,
“If such second sales are not allowed (of vehicles complying with the 31st March 2020 deadline), then another, possible absurd and possibly environmentally unacceptable result would occur namely that there would be a large stock of vehicles now in the names of individuals connected with distributorship or dealership which could not be used at all and would have to be turned to scrap or junked without ever being used. We see nothing in the orders passed by the Supreme Court to support such a rigid view,”
The Order clarified that if any vehicle is found be first sold or Regional Transport Office Registration is sought after April 1, 2020, then this would be in Violation of the Supreme Court Order and it was not allowed to be Registered, sold or driven on the road.
