The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the sale and registration of vehicles with Bharat State III emission norms will be banned after April 1 when the BS-IV norms are rolled out. While hearing a plea filed by the Environment Pollution Control Authority, the top court said the health of millions of people was more important than commercial interests, reported ANI.

The petitioner had demanded that only BS-IV compliant vehicles be sold in the market and argued that the environment could not get cleaner while older vehicles were still available. According to the Auto Fuel Policy, BS-IV norms will be adopted in the country by 2017.

At present, their are eight lakh BS-III compliant two-wheelers and trucks, reported Hindustan Times. Barring Bajaj, all other automobile companies had opposed the plea, saying they had unsold stock of BS-III compliant vehicles. The manufacturers had asked that the April deadline be enforced only for the sale of vehicles and not their registration. The Centre had earlier supported the automakers’ plea, reported NDTV.