Dealers Oversell BS4 Vehicles: SC Questions FADA For Flouting Orders

The Supreme Court on 27^th March 2020, had allowed sale of BS4 vehicles for ten days, during which period, the dealerships could sell ten percent of their remaining stock.

As the country transitioned to BS6 emission norms from 1^st April 2020, the automobile dealerships across the nation were left with substantial BS4 stocks to be cleared, by the deadline of 31^st March 2020. If that was not all, the nationwide lockdown imposed by the Central Government on 24^th March 2020, due to Coronavirus (COVID-19), made matters worse for them.

Along with others, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) approached the top court with an appeal to extend the deadline of clearing BS4 stocks by few more months.

The Supreme Court listened to the request on 27^th March 2020, but only allowed the dealerships (except in Delhi-NCR) to sell a maximum of ten percent of their BS4 stocks within ten days after the lockdown. Here’s a link to our article covering this story.

According to the Apex Court, ten percent of the left-over BS4 stocks translates to roughly around 1.05 lakh units. However, it noted that the dealerships had sold around 2.55 lakh units of vehicles during these ten days, which is around 1.5 lakh units more than the set limit.

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The bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra, on Monday, lashed out at automobile associations and FADA for flouting its orders and sought the details of vehicles sold during this period, by Friday, 19^th June 2020. It also asked the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to submit the details of all the vehicles that have been sold and registered after it’s 27th March order.

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With this update, this whole BS4-episode has taken an ugly turn. It remains to be seen what will be the next steps taken by the SC after the MoRTH submits the details of the vehicles sold. Let us hope buyers do not get penalized!

Moin Ahmed

Source – ET Auto