OdishaPlus Bureau
The Supreme Court bench led by Justice Arun Mishra on Friday barred the registration of BS-IV-compliant vehicles till further orders. BSVI emission norms came into effect in the country on April 1, 2020. The deadline for the registration of the BS-IV vehicles was March 31, 2020. However, in an order dated March 27, the SC had allowed the sale of vehicles for 10 days, barring in Delhi-NCR, after the lockdown 1.0 was lifted, in view of Coronavirus outbreak.
Back then, the SC had also ruled that the dealerships could sell only 10% of the unsold BS-IV vehicles during the 10-day period after the lockdown ended. Such vehicles would have to be registered within 10 days of the sale. The SC had also made it clear that those BS-IV vehicles that had already been sold but not registered due to the lockdown, could be registered after the lockdown was lifted.
In March 2020, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) approached the apex court for extending the BS-IV vehicle registration deadline to May 31 after the COVID-19 outbreak had resulted in the counter sales falling almost 70 % across the dealerships. Earlier in February 2020, the apex court had rejected FADA’s initial plea seeking an extension of the March 31 deadline.