Perhaps Siri knows better than SIAM on how long to dispose off banned inventory

The Supreme Court in its judgment made scathing observations on the conduct of automobile manufacturers who tried to circumvent the ban on compliance norms of Bharat Stage - IV vehicles.

Trumping health concerns over commercial interests, the apex court on March 29 had banned the sale and registration of Bharat Stage (BS) - III type of vehicles across the country after April 1, 2017.

In February 2016, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) issued a notification stating that BS IV emission norms will be applicable to all categories of vehicles from April 1, 2017, thus effectively stopping the sale of BS III vehicles.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta had banned the sale and registration of vehicles that were not compliant with the BS IV emission norms. This move proved to be a major setback to the automobile companies, as it affected the sale of at least 9 lakh two and three-wheeler and commercial vehicles valued at almost Rs 12,000 crores. BS IV compliant vehicles have been on roads in select cities since 2010, but, from April 1, the BS IV emission norms will be applicable to the entire country.

In a strongly worded judgment pronounced on Thursday, the SC said it could not be asked to shut their eyes to the "phenomenal rise in pollution levels in the country." the 30-page judgment read, "This would make a mockery of the efforts of all concerned in regulating vehicular emissions and virtually enabling the interveners to emasculate an important component of the right to life...the entitlement of millions of our countrymen and women to breathe less polluted air and ignore public health issues in conducting their business."

The SC expressed its concern over the rising levels of pollution and maintained that the "concern is not only for the present population of the country but for future generations who also have an entitlement to breathe pollution free air." Accepting submissions that an automobile's life spanned over 10-15 years, the bench questioned if "we really want to leave behind drastically polluted air to be breathed in this case at least for the next between 10 and 15 years?"

It further lauded the Centre's approach to phasing out the new emission norms to avoid economic shock in a single stroke. "Such a huge investment from the tax-payers' earnings cannot be defeated only with a view to subserve the interest of the automobile industry which, as discussed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, has become one of the major causes in the phenomenal rise of air pollution in India," the court said.

The SC noted that it was clear that as far back as in March 2015, the Government was prepared to walk the extra mile in ensuring that BS-IV auto fuel is readily available at least in the mega cities at a cost of Rs 30,000 crores.

Summing it up, the top court slammed the automobile makers for deliberately misinterpreting various notifications and warnings over the years. "The sum and substance of the discussion is that the automobile industry had, at the very minimum, a five-year warning that it would have to consider issues relating to air pollution as a part of its manufacturing activities and production strategy and thereafter the industry had more than five years to plan out its activities and revisit the strategy but did not do so."

The top court quipped that perhaps Siri would have better answers on the question of how much time manufacturers would need to dispose off the stock, than the manufacturers themselves.