Land Mark Hon'ble Supreme Court Order on Bharat Stage IV vehicles : Registration of Pollution-Free Vehicles only allowed
What it appears to be a land mark judicial pronouncement on the issue of fundamental right ,pollution-free air to all , which changes the lives of the people ,Right to Life means Right to pollution-free air ,of late air pollution has engulfing almost all major cities and creating health hazards to all ,it has been observed dangerous smoke emissions from the vehicles are the main source of air pollution in all cities.
The Following Directions by Hon'ble Supreme Court on BS-IV Vehicles :
1. No registration of vehicles which do not meet requirement of Bharat Stage -IV with effect from 1st April,2017
2. Non -BS -IV registration is allowed vehicles purchased before 31st March ,2017
Full Text of Hon'ble Supreme Court order :
IN THE SUPREME
COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL ORIGINAL
JURISDICTION
I.A.NO.
487/2017, I.A. NO. 491/2017, I.A. NO. 494/2017, I.A. NO. 489/2017, I.A. NO.
495/2017
in
Writ
Petition(Civil) No.13029/1985
M.C.MEHTA ...PETITIONER(s)
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA
& ORS.
...RESPONDENT(s)
O R D E R
We have heard the learned Solicitor
General, learned Amicus Curiae, learned counsel for the interveners
who are manufacturers of vehicles(two wheelers,three wheelers,four wheelers and
commercial vehicles –for short referred to as ‘such vehicles’)and learned
counsel for the association of dealers of such vehicles.
The seminal issue in these
applications is whether
the sale and registration and therefore the commercial
interests of manufacturers and dealers
of such vehicles that do not meet the
Bharat Stage-IV (for
short 'BS-IV') emission standards as on 1st April, 2017 takes primacy
over the health hazard due to
increased air pollution of millions of
our country men and women. The answer is
quite obvious.
The controversy relates to the sale
and registration (on
and after 1st April, 2017) of
such vehicles lying in stock with the manufacturers and dealers that meet the Bharat Stage III
emission standards (for short BS-III
standards) but do not meet the BS-IV emission standards.
Briefly, according to
the manufacturers, they are
entitled to manufacture such
vehicles till 31st March, 2017 and they have
done so. In so doing, they say that they have not
violated any prohibition or any law.
Hence, the sale and registration of
such vehicles on and from
1st April, 2017 ought
not to be
prohibited. They say that
they will not
be manufacturing any vehicle that does
not comply with
the BS-IV emission standards from
and after 1st April, 2017 and therefore
the only issue
is the sale and registration of
the existing stock
of such vehicles
that comply with BS-III emission standards.They say
that they may
be given reasonable time to
dispose of the existing stock of such vehicles.
On the other hand, according to the
learned Amicus, permitting
such vehicles to be sold or registered
on or after
1st April, 2017
would constitute a health hazard to millions of our
country men and
women by adding to the air
pollution levels in the country (which are
already quite alarming). It is
her submission that the manufacturers
of such vehicles were fully aware, way back in 2010,
that all vehicles would have to convert
to BS-IV fuel on and from 1st April, 2017 and therefore, they had more than enough time to stop the production of
BS-III compliant vehicles and switch over to the manufacture of BS-IV
compliant vehicles. In
fact, the major manufacturer of 4 wheeler vehicles,
Maruti Sazuki had completely
switched over to the manufacture
of BS-IV compliant
vehicles a few
years ago.
However, for reasons best known
to manufacturers of
such vehicles and entirely at their peril, they did not make
a complete switch
(though a partial switch has been
made) even though
they had the
technology and technical know-how
to do so. Therefore, keeping the larger
public interest in mind and the
potential health hazard to millions of our country men
and women due to increased air pollution, there is no justification
for any
of the manufacturers not shifting
to the anufacture
of BS-IV compliant vehicles well before 1st April,
2017.
It has been brought to our notice
that on 5th
January, 2016 the learned
Solicitor General on
behalf of the
Government of India
had submitted before this Court that requisite quality fuel for
BS-IV compliant vehicles would be
available (all over the country) with
effect from 1st April, 2017.[1] This was
confirmed and reiterated by the
learned Solicitor General during
the course of hearing and he stated that now from 1st April,2017 requisite quality fuel for BS-IV
compliant vehicles would be available
all over the country. He also pointed
out that the
refineries of the Government of India had incurred an
expenditure of about Rs.30,000
crores for producing requisite fuel for BS-IV compliant vehicles.
On balance, in our opinion, the
submission of the
learned Amicus deserves to be
accepted keeping in mind the potential health hazard of such vehicles being
introduced on the road affecting millions of our people
in the country. The number of such
vehicles may be
small compared to the
overall number of vehicles in the country but the health of the
people is far, far more important
than the commercial interests of
the manufacturers or the loss
that they are likely to suffer in
respect of the
so-called small number of such vehicles. The manufacturers
of such vehicles
were fully aware that eventually from 1st April, 2017 they would be required
to manufacture only BS-IV compliant vehicles but
for reasons that
are not clear, they chose to sit
back and declined to take
sufficient pro-active steps.
Accordingly, for detailed reasons that
will follow,we direct that:
(a)On and from
1st April, 2017 such vehicles that
are not BS-IV compliant shall not be sold in India by
any manufacturer or dealer, that is to
say that such vehicles whether two wheeler, three wheeler, four
wheeler or commercial vehicles will not be sold in India
by any manufacturer
or dealer on and from 1st April, 2017.
(b)All the vehicle registering
authorities under the Motor Vehicles
Act, 1988 are prohibited for registering such vehicles on and
from 1st April, 2017 that do not meet BS-IV emission
standards, except on proof that such a
vehicle has already been sold on or before 31st March,2017.As mentioned above,detailed
reasons for the
above order will
be given in due course.
............................J.
(MADAN B. LOKUR)
.............................J.
(DEEPAK GUPTA)
NEW DELHI
MARCH 29, 2017
-----------------------
[1]
[2] M.C. Mehta v. Union of India,
(2016) 4 SCC 269
