The Supreme Court on Wednesday will take a call on allowing registration of over 8.8 lakh vehicles manufactured with Bharat-III compliant engines that face a deadline of March 31, 2017. With the new and cleaner Bharat-IV fuel set to roll in across the country from April 1, 2017, the Government had asked all automobile manufacturers to phase out all BS-III compliant vehicles before this date.
The arguments advanced by the auto companies ended on Tuesday with the Court being persuaded to work out a middle path by which the existing stock of Bharat Stage - III (BS-III) can be extinguished within a given timeframe. The highest number of vehicles is that of two-wheelers, roughly 6.7 lakh followed by trucks (96000), three-wheelers and two-wheelers.
On the other hand, the Environment Protection Control Authority (EPCA) that is assisting the Court in environment-related matters has pushed for strict enforcement of the deadline with concerns growing that any leeway given to auto industry will result in pushing ahead the deadline of implementing Euro 6 fuel by 2024. Already, the Centre has claimed that converting the fuel from BS-III to BS-IV has cost the exchequer over Rs 30,000 crore and the proposed introduction of Euro 6 fuel is estimated to go beyond Rs 80,000 crore.
The Bench comprising Justices Madan B lokur and Deepak Gupta heard all parties and decided to give an interim order on Wednesday in view of the urgency as the deadline ends by Friday.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers sought a year’s time to dispose the existing inventory of BS-III vehicles but EPCA counsel opposed this prayer by pointing out that none of the auto majors respon-
ded to repeated warnings issued by it, giving clear indications that they need to gradually close production of BS-III vehicles before March 31.