SC bans sale of BS-IV vehicles from 2020 - Fusion - WeRIndia

In order to control the pollution levels in the country, the Supreme Court banned the sale and registration of Bharat Stage IV (BS-IV) vehicles from April 1, 2020.

The reports that revealed the order of the SC on Thursday stated that the pollution in the country has reached an alarming level and the situation cannot be tolerate any delay.

A bench of three Justices Madan B. Lokur, S. Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta ruled that only BS-VI vehicles will be allowed after the given deadline.

In order to control air pollutants from motor vehicles, Government established Bharat Stage (BS) emission norms. These are the standards intended to control vehicle emissions.

The BS-IV norms have been implemented in the country since April 2017. Later, the government had announced that the county would adopt BS-VI norms completely by 2020 and the BS-V norms would be skipped.

The Court stated that BS-VI compliant vehicles will be more expensive than BS-IV, and people normally have a tendency to buy the cheaper vehicles. Hence, they will try to buy even in their surrounding areas; but the sale of BS-IV vehicles is banned due to air pollution and only the BS-VI compliant vehicles will be allowed from 2020.

The Court said that there is no compromise on the health of citizens. Health is taken as a priority than wealth. Those who want to extend the deadline will not be permitted as their greed will not be taken into account considering the health of citizens.

The Court observed that even the unborn children are suffering from pollution issues, hence the step is essential to save the new generations.

Since enough time is given for the manufacturers to make BS-VI compliant vehicles, it must be done in a phased manner starting from this year.

The introduction of BS-VI fuel should also be done in stages so that it will be easier to shift to the new process.

Image credit: supreme-court-650-400_650x400_71461841002 image by BMN Network is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Image Reference: https://www.flickr.com/photos/152975694@N02/36004822620