Supreme Court Comes Down Strongly On FADA Over Registration Of BSIV Vehicles

March 31 had been prescribed as a deadline for all automakers to switch from BS4 to BS6 emission norms by the government. The notification issued had prescribed that sale and registration of BS4 vehicles would not be allowed beyond the March 31 deadline

On March 27, The Apex Court had allowed marginal relief to dealers and OEMs considering the lockdown situation. The Supreme Court had permitted the sale of 10 per cent unsold BS4 inventory for only a period of 10 days post the lifting of the lockdown. All sold vehicles had to be registered in no more than 10 days from the date of sale. The sale of any BS4 inventory in the Delhi-NCR region was barred.

July 8th - The Supreme Court of India has recalled its March 27 order that allowed the sale of BS4 vehicles till 10 days after the lockdown. The apex court of India said the Federation of Automobile Dealers’ Association of India (FADA) has violated the order. Only those vehicles which have been registered with the VAHAN portal will be protected bringing uncertainty over the fate of 17.000 vehicles sold but not yet registered with the VAHAN portal.

The Apex Court has also directed FADA to furnish the data of BS4 vehicle sales and has directed the government to substantiate the sales data with the details on the VAHAN portal. Observing that after exceeding the number of BS4 vehicles allowed for sale, FADA was now seeking for relaxation of the SC order to allow the registration of the vehicles.

FADA has submitted that as of March 31, member dealers have sold 94,000 BS4 vehicles, while non-member dealers have sold over 1.3 lakh BS4 vehicles. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had allowed a prescribed a limit of 1.09 lakh.

SC had relaxed the March 31 deadline, on the back of an urgent plea by FADA. FADA had made an urgent appeal before the apex court to relax the deadline by 30 days after the lifting of the lockdown. The FADA,

Citing Force Majeure circumstances, and the COVID19 induced lockdown, keeping the dealers from being able to sell the existing inventory FADA had filed a plea in the Apex Court. To which the court responded by relaxing the March 31st deadline by 10days post lockdown.

According to estimates by FADA the total unsold inventory accounted for over Rs 7,000 crore.