Sold until March 31: SC lifts registration ban on BS-IV vehicles

NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the freeze on registration of BS-IV vehicles sold during the initial days of the Covid-19 lockdown until March 31. Modifying its July 31 order, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari said: “Those vehicles sold and registered during the month of March on the e-Vahan portal and those vehicles whose temporary registrations were made, to that extent, registration is allowed. We cannot allow registration of [39,937] vehicles not uploaded on the portal [of the ministry of road, transport and highways].”

The court on July 31 ordered the freeze after it saw abnormally high sale of vehicles in the days leading up to March 31 when business across the country came to a standstill on account of a nationwide lockdown due to Covid.

The court on Thursday went by a chart presented by the ministry, which verified details of vehicles sold and registered on e-Vahan from March 12-31. As per the Federation of Automobile Traders Association (FADA), a total of 2,25,257 vehicles were sold during this period. On verification, the ministry found data of 1,45,152 vehicles on its portal that were granted permanent registration while 29,834 were awaiting registration.

These vehicles can now be registered as per the court’s latest order. Out of the balance 50,261 vehicles, the ministry contacted states which are yet to connect on the portal.

These states included Andhra Pradesh, and few regional transport offices in MP, Telangana, Andaman Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep.

The Centre located data of 10,324 vehicles in these states but found no details about 39,937 vehicles shown as sold by FADA. The court refused to permit registration of this category.

The bench asked senior advocate KV Vishwanathan, who appeared for FADA, to explain how so many vehicles were sold during the lockdown.

He explained that several vehicles were sold online while some were sold by dealers that were later sold as second-hand vehicles. “...We want to dispel the notion that the FADA has tried to manipulate or play fraud. The dealers were under pressure to sell the stock prior to March 31...”.