Civic body’s plea to register BS-III vehicles rejected
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) refused to modify the Supreme Court’s order regarding a ban on registration of BS-III vehicles, and declined to allow the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) to get 10 new BS-III compliant diesel vehicles registered.
The Bharat Stage or BS norms are standards for vehicular emissions with BS-III suggesting the earlier generation of emission norms while BS-IV stands for the latest of these norms. BS-IV norms came into force in India on April 1.
The EDMC had sought the green court’s intervention to allow the registration of their newly purchased diesel vehicles, which were BS-III compliant. However the bench headed by the NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar, refused to grant the civic body the permission, as it had no jurisdiction in the matter.
“The counsel appearing for EDMC submits that the order dated March 30, 2017 be modified as their application is for registering of BS-III vehicles which has been purchased by the Corporation. In view of the order passed by the Supreme Court of India recently, we have no jurisdiction to entertain this application,” the bench said.
The apex court had earlier, on March 29, imposed a ban on the sale and registration of vehicles that were not compliant with the newer BS-IV emission standards, from April 1 in India. The apex court had upheld public health as “far, far more important than the commercial interests of manufacturers.”
The EDMC, through their representative counsel Balendu Shekhar, had sought to get their new 10 diesel vehicles registered, which they said would be used to collect and transport municipal waste.
Shekhar, however, informed the court that the vehicles were only BS-III compliant. The EDMC has withdrawn their plea, and have sought the liberty to move the top court in the matter.
The NGT order comes just days after they allowed the registration of eight diesel vehicles owned by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, to be used to lift garbage. These vehicles, however, were BS-IV compliant.
The green court had on Thursday, ordered public sector oil companies to immediately stop using BS-I and BS-II diesel trucks to transport petroleum products and petrol in the DelhiNCR region. The ban on BS III vehicles will cost automakers nearly ₹3,000 crore, according to market research firm Crisil.
WITH PTI INPUTS