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Confusion over sale ban on four-wheelers

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Aug 28 - Despite the Gauhati High Court issuing an order on Wednesday stating that there cannot be any prohibition restricting registration and sale of four-wheelers with a mass of up to 1,500 kg and quadric-cycles that have undergone the crash and emission tests conforming to the requirements and standards set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and in respect of such vehicles certified by a statutory authority of having met the said requirements, confusion continues to shroud the matter, with the State government refusing to lift what the auto manufacturers and dealers have termed as a �blanket ban�.

The High Court�s order came following a petition filed by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) against a June 26 order of the court which had led to the State government�s decision to ban the vehicles. The next hearing is on September 17.

A city-based car dealer said that the State government, by persisting with its stand on the ban, was wrongly implementing the court order. �The interim order makes it clear that vehicles complying with the crash and emission norms can be registered and sold. Our vehicles possess ARAI certificates of adherence to BIS safety norms and this should be sufficient as per the court�s observation,� he said.

The ban has effectively stalled sale of vehicles in the above-mentioned categories that normally constitute the bulk of passenger car sales in the State.

Cars sold in India have to clear crash, safety and emission tests conducted by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Pune, as per the mandate of the Motor Vehicles Act.

The State transport department however, maintains that the High Court ruling had been �misinterpreted� as a reversal of the court�s June 26 interim order. According to it, vehicles which conform to the BIS crash and emission tests, again have to be certified by a statutory authority, and that neither the State transport department nor the BIS is the statutory authority.

A source in the transport department said that it would move the Union Ministry of Road Transport and the ARAI to clarify the matter.

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