MillenniumPost
Business

SIAM files petition for review of SC's BS-III vehicle ban

SIAM filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Thursday pleading for a review of the Judgement issued in the case of BS III Vehicles.

In a statement issued on Thursday, SIAM said that the Review Petition has pointed out certain facts that were not covered in the Judgment, which go to the root of the matter and had influenced the Court to pass such an Order.

For example, the Court has erroneously construed an Office Memorandum from Ministry of Road Transport & Highways dated March 3, 2017 to be an Office Memorandum dated March 3, 2015, i.e. 2 years earlier in holding that the Government had sent a clear message to the manufacturers to stop production of BS III vehicles before 1st April 17.

Whereas this was a Government assurance given 3 weeks before the judgement, that unsold stocks of BS III vehicles which were in the pipeline, would be permitted to be sold and registered even after 1st April 2017 as has been done even when BS II and BS III were implemented.

Acting on the representations made on such clarification issued by the Government of India as late as in March 2017, as well as the plain reading of the Rules, the manufacturers had a reasonable and legitimate expectation that unsold inventories of BS III stocks could be sold even after 1st April, 2017 and until such stocks were exhausted.

SIAM has also highlighted in the review petition that the staggered phase-in of BS IV Emission norms for vehicles was not done to help the auto industry as mentioned in the judgement. This staggering was done to ensure that adequate capacities for the BS IV fuel supply gets established to expand the coverage of fuel availability to other parts of the country as per the roadmap agreed with the Oil Industry.

The Court while recording the series of Notifications issued by the Government to implement BS IV has erred in holding the BS IV roadmap was for the convenience of the vehicle manufacturers, pointing out that the roadmap to vehicle manufacturers was known from 2010, which is not true, and this presents the auto industry in a wrong light.

SIAM has pointed out that correct position is that the initial limited coverage implementation of BS IV norms and its gradual extension to different areas of the country was entirely dependent on the Nation's our capacity and ability to provide BS IV fuel.

SIAM has also highlighted that the Court has further based its judgement on an assumption that there will be 80% reduction in emissions of PM between BS III and BS IV standards. Though it may be true for only Heavy Vehicles, but such reduction is much less in other categories of vehicles.

In the light of these, SIAM has sought a review of the judgement by the Supreme Court.
Next Story
Share it