The Supreme Court of India has provided the much needed relief to the auto manufacturers and dealers by giving an extension of 10 days to sell the BS4 vehicles. Earlier, the Union Government had fixed a deadline of March 31, 2020 for the sale of BS4 compliant vehicles. However, due to the Coronavirus outbreak, as the whole country is in lockdown mode, the dealers are finding it very tough to clear existing stock of BS4 vehicles. Hence, the SC has allowed the dealers to sell only 10 percent of their unsold BS4 vehicles in the next 10 days once the lockdown period is over.
The 21-day lockdown, announced by PM Narendra Modi, ends on April 14 which states that the dealers can sell 10 percent of their remaining BS4 stock by April 24, 2020. The petition was filed by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) and the Society of Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) in the Supreme Court for extension of March 31 deadline. FADA in its petition said that more than 15,000 passenger vehicles (PVs), 12000 commercial vehicles (CVs) and 7 Lakh 2-wheelers are unsold due to two reasons: a) economic slowdown in the earlier half of the year, b) ongoing Coronavirus pandemic when the entire country is locked down. This matter was heard by a bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Deepak by video conferencing.
The Supreme Court bench was of the view that there is no logic behind the extension of BS4 vehicles sale anymore while the burdening the environment as well. The bench said, " Let's learn to sacrifice, do something for the country's environment, have sympathy... We understand the psychology of businesses and dealers... You want to take advantage of Corona(virus) for a few days of lockdown in March." Furthermore, the SC bench in its order directed that no BS4 compliant vehicle, whether two-wheeler or four-wheeler, will not be sold in Delhi-NCR after April 14, 2020 when the lockdown gets over. For those asking, the companies have been offering huge discounts and benefits on the purchase of BS4 vehicles to get rid of the existing stock.