The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered that from April 1, 2020, only Euro VI fuel vehicles will be permitted to be sold and registered across the country.
A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice S. Abdul Nazir and Justice Deepak Gupta said: "No motor vehicles conforming to the emission standards of Bharat Stage IV shall be sold or registered from April 1, 2020."
The order takes recourse to Article 142 of the constitution that makes it mandatory for vehicle manufacturers to bring Euro VI vehicles from April 1, 2020.
Petrol pumps in Delhi-NCR are already selling Euro VI petrol and diesel.
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Welcoming the order, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) counsel Vijay Panjwani said that the switch-over to Euro VI vehicles was long overdue as Euro VI fuel is available in Delhi NCR for the last one year.
Panjwani said that switch over was being held back to facilitate the interstate movement of vehicles.
There’s also a possibility that the NCR (national capital region) will migrate to BS-VI grade fuel by April 1, 2019, before the entire nation moves to the same by April 1, 2020, as and when the BS-VI emission norms will be applicable as well.
China has banned the sale of diesel cars in Beijing and capped the number of cars to be sold annually in the capital at 1,50,000. Post-2008, India’s anti-pollution measures have been tepid. Some measures being widely mentioned as crucial to prevent a downslide include moving to higher emission standards (such as Euro V or VI levels), keeping the price of CNG—a cleaner fuel—much lower than diesel, taxing diesel cars more and disincentivising car usage with, say, higher parking rates and steeper fines for parking violations.
