The Supreme Court on Wednesday recalled its earlier order in which it allowed the sale of BS-IV vehicles for 10 days across India, except in Delhi-NCR, after lifting of a national lockdown, warning automobile dealers of not taking advantage of the apex court by “playing fraud”.

A bench headed by justice Arun Mishra observed that its earlier directive from March 27 was violated and BS-IV vehicles were sold during the lockdown in the last week of March and even in the next month.

When the bench was informed about the sale of such vehicles during the lockdown, it recalled the order by which it permitted automobile dealers to sell 10% of their BS-IV stock for further 10 days after the lockdown. The order was passed after dealers complained that they lost seven days from March 25 to March 31 due to the lockdown.

“You cannot befool us. You cannot take advantage of this court’s order by playing fraud. How could you have opened for sale during lockdown? This is not just violation of the lockdown but violation of our order too,” said the three-judge bench of justices Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and Indira Banerjee.

The bench said BS-IV vehicles sold after March 31 this year and those whose details have not been uploaded on the e-vahan portal of the government will not be registered. In October 2018, the court said no BS-IV vehicle would be sold or registered in India from April 1, 2020. During the hearing on Wednesday, the bench observed that sale of BS-IV vehicles had increased in the last week of March, when the nationwide lockdown was in force, and there were online transactions also.

The Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) submitted a tabular chart to the court giving date-wise sales of two-wheelers, three-wheelers, passenger cars and commercial vehicles made by FADA members and non-members during March 12-31.

The court was surprised to note that the bulk of sales took place during the lockdown. FADA members sold 61,861 BS-IV vehicles in the period March 12-31, of which sale of 33,328 vehicles pertained to the lockdown period. Similarly, non-member dealers sold 72,532 vehicles during the period of March 12-31, out of which the sale of 40,184 vehicles occurred during the lockdown week.

Senior advocate KV Vishwanathan, who appeared for FADA, informed the court that most sales took place online during the lockdown.

With inputs from PTI