The Supreme Court of India has passed a ruling stating that no Bharat Stage (BS)-IV vehicles are to be sold in the country from April 01, 2020. A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta came out with this judgement keeping in mind the rising level of air pollution in the country. The judgement was passed after a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was registered by environmentalist M.C. Mehta who had sought drastic steps to tackle air pollution. The Central Government and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers had previously appealed for extending the BS-IV deadline till September 2020, but the apex court dismissed it keeping in mind the over pollution levels across the country. The bench in its order stated that no vehicle conforming to the emission standard of BS IV shall be allowed to be sold or registered in the entire country with effect from 01.04.2020. Justice Deepak Gupta said, “We may note that the World Health Organisation’s database of more than 4,300 cities showed the Indian cities of Gwalior, Allahabad, Raipur, Delhi, Ludhiana, Kanpur, Varanasi and Patna as being among the most polluted in the world. Our attention has been drawn to various other documents which clearly show the deleterious effects of pollution on health. The hazards of pollution and its ill effect on the health of the citizens especially children are not limited to the city of Delhi or the NCR of Delhi but affect all the citizens of the country”.
