Supreme Court Adjourns Hearing About BS4 Vehicles Sales Until 31 July

The Supreme Court of India has announced that it has given the Government an extension for 10 days to file an affidavit with details of BS4 compliant vehicles that were registered after the 31 March 2020 deadline, against a plea made by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association.

The Court had allowed for BS4 vehicles to be sold for an additional 10 days after the lockdown in order to help dealers recover from losses faced during the last week of March when the lockdown was called for.

In addition, the vehicles sold during this period had to be registered within 10 days of sale. The Supreme Court however ruled the BS4 compliant vehicles could not be sold in the Delhi-NCR region.

July 8 saw the Supreme Court withdraw the order that allowed for an additional 10 days to sell BS4 compliant vehicles after finding out that over 2.55 lakh vehicles were sold, against the 1.05 lakh vehicles that the Court had ordered.

The Apex Court has accused the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association for fraudulent action and passed a ruling that all BS4 vehicles that were registered after the new deadline will be considered invalid.

However, the Court said it would all for registrations to hold good for those vehicles that were registered with the Government's VAHAN portal. As is, there are roughly 17,000 thousand vehicles that are not registered with the VAHAN database.

The Supreme Court said that no vehicle can be registered without its orders and has directed the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) to file affidavits with details of all BS4 vehicles that were sold after the order came into effect on 27 March.

The Court had directed the Government to provide data from its VAHAN portal regarding BS4 vehicles that are registered on the database after 31 March and will take a final decision after reviewing the facts on 31 July this year.

Thoughts About The Supreme Court Deferring Hearing About BS4 Vehicles Sold After 31 March

This appears to be shaping up in classic Indian judicial style. We think there is a high possibility that the hearing will get deferred on the 31st of this month. This time however, the Government has a legit scapegoat in Covid-19.