Age Not Emissions: BS-IV Owner Moves SC

On Wednesday 5 August 2026, senior advocate Rakesh Khanna mentioned an application before Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on behalf of a Delhi resident who owns a 2016 BS-IV car, reported by ThePrint as a Volvo. The owner's point is narrow and, for anyone with an older car in the capital, important. The Supreme Court said in December 2025 that BS-IV and newer vehicles should face no coercive action on age alone. The owner's PUC centre issued a certificate in November 2025 that ran out on 25 February 2026, the day the car turned 10, and the centre's software will not issue another one past that date, whatever the exhaust reads. Delhi fuel stations do not refuel a car without a valid PUC. The application calls this a catch 22, and the Chief Justice agreed to take it up. This article sets out who is affected in November 2026, what is allowed today, and the route that gets the car sold to a buyer outside NCR while the court decides.

How the Court Got Here

The age rule itself is not new. The National Green Tribunal imposed the 10-year diesel and 15-year petrol limits for Delhi-NCR in 2014 and 2015, and the Supreme Court affirmed them in the M.C. Mehta proceedings in October 2018. What has moved in the last eighteen months is enforcement and the court's interim position on it. We covered the enforcement side in Delhi now seizes old cars on sight and the owner's options in Delhi end-of-life car rules explained, so here is only the sequence that matters for the new application.

Two things about the table are worth stating plainly. First, every order in it is interim. The 2018 review sought by the Delhi government has not been decided, and the December 2025 order is a modification of an August 2025 interim order. Second, the December order protects owners from coercive action. It does not instruct PUC centres, fuel stations or the registration database to treat a BS-IV car past the line as a normal car. That gap is what the August 2026 application is about.

Who Is Affected: Fuel, Age, Norm and What Is Allowed Today

The three fields that decide your position are the registration date, the fuel type and the emission norm, all of which sit on the VAHAN record. Age is counted from the date of registration, not the model year on the invoice. The table reflects the position as reported on 4 November 2026; confirm with your RTO before acting on it.

What a PUC Refused on Age Means in Practice

A PUC certificate records that the car passed an emission test on a given day. The application says the owner's car passes the test, but the PUC centre's system will not generate a certificate once the registration date puts the car past the threshold. The owner's RC is valid until March 2031 and insurance until February 2027; the only document missing is the one that is checked at the pump. Senior advocate Khanna told the court the situation puts an undue burden on owners who kept compliant cars in order, and that the affected cars are BS-IV or better. The Chief Justice, for his part, is reported to have said he expected citizens to help reduce pollution in the capital and nearby areas. Neither side has been heard in full, and no hearing date had been reported when this article was written. We will update when the matter is listed.

For an owner in that position, the day-to-day effect is simple. The car can be parked, insured and serviced. It cannot be refuelled at a Delhi pump that follows the no-PUC-no-fuel instruction, and the protection against seizure does not help with that. Some owners fill up outside Delhi; that becomes less practical from 1 November, because an older car making a round trip to a Haryana or Uttar Pradesh pump is on the road in the GRAP season with a lapsed PUC. Driving without a valid PUC is itself an offence under the Motor Vehicles Act, separate from the end-of-life question.

The Route Out: NOC and a Buyer Outside NCR

The age cap is a Delhi-NCR rule, not a national one. A 10-year-old BS-IV diesel that cannot be refuelled in Delhi is, in most other states, an ordinary used car with five years of registration left. Getting it there takes a no-objection certificate from the Delhi RTO under Section 48 of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, applied for on Form 28. The buyer then re-registers it at their own RTO under Section 47, pays that state's road tax, and the seller claims a refund of the unused Delhi tax. Our tips on what an NOC is and when you need it and Forms 28, 29 and 30 walk through the forms; the road tax refund on state transfer tip covers the money coming back.

Three Delhi-specific points, because they are where owners get stuck.

1. The one-year NOC limit is gone

Until late October 2025, Delhi would only issue an NOC for an end-of-life vehicle within a year of its registration lapsing or being cancelled. The Delhi government removed that limit, so an owner whose diesel turned 10 in 2023 and has sat in the basement since can still apply. The NOC is issued against a vehicle whose Delhi registration is being surrendered, so once it is granted the car has no business being on a Delhi road except to leave.

2. Not every state will register an ex-NCR end-of-life car

Delhi's own guidance says no NOC will be issued for destinations identified as restricted for re-registration under any NGT order, and several state RTOs apply their own filters to a car arriving with an end-of-life history, particularly a diesel. There is no official all-India list. The practical rule is that the buyer confirms with their RTO, in writing if possible, that a diesel of that age and norm from Delhi will be re-registered, before either side agrees a price. A buyer in a state that does register them is paying for exactly that confirmation.

3. The winter entry curb cuts both ways

Once the car carries another state's plate and is below BS-VI, it cannot enter Delhi between 1 November 2026 and 31 January 2027 under the plan the Chief Minister announced on 20 October. A buyer in Meerut or Gurugram who expects to drive into Delhi for work is therefore not your buyer this winter. A buyer in Jaipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh or further afield, who has no reason to cross the border, is.

What the Car Is Worth, and the Scrappage Alternative

Be realistic about price. A BS-IV diesel past 10 years sells into a smaller pool of buyers than the same car did at 8 years, and the buyer carries the NOC, re-registration and road tax costs on their side. Expect to price below what an equivalent car registered in the buyer's own state would fetch, and expect the buyer to ask for the NOC in hand before paying the balance. Against that, a well-kept BS-IV car with a complete VAHAN record and no loan on it is still a car with years of registration left, which is more than it is worth as scrap. Condition and paperwork, not the Delhi registration, set the ceiling. Our piece on selling before the 15-year fitness test covers the timing logic for petrol cars approaching the line.

Scrapping is the alternative, and for some cars the right one. A Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility pays scrap value and issues a Certificate of Deposit. Under the central scrappage framework notified in October 2021, that certificate earns a motor vehicle tax concession of up to 25 per cent on a new non-transport vehicle, up to 15 per cent on a transport vehicle, and a waiver of the registration fee; the exact rate is set by each state and Delhi's own concession scheme has been proposed in different forms, so check what applies on the day. Our tip on the 2026 scrappage policy sets out the facility process and the certificate's terms. Scrapping makes sense when the car has low resale value, when no state the owner can reach will register it, or when the owner is buying new and the tax concession is worth more than the resale gap. For a BS-IV car in good order, it usually is not the better number.

Seller Checklist: Delhi Car to an Out-of-State Buyer

1. Read your own VAHAN record first. Registration date, fuel, emission norm, RC status, hypothecation and insurance validity. Rs. 99. If a financier is still on the record, clear it with Form 35 before anything else; no RTO will issue an NOC on a hypothecated car without the lender's consent.
2. Settle every pending challan. The NOC application checks for dues and so does the destination RTO. The Rs. 149 Full Report lists pending challans by registration number.
3. Find the buyer before the NOC. Form 28 names the state and RTO the vehicle is going to. Apply once the buyer has confirmed with their RTO that it will register an ex-Delhi car of this age and norm.
4. List it verified, with the record shown. A verified listing on VahanBazaar costs Rs. 99, is cross-checked against the VAHAN record, and on average draws about 3x more buyer enquiries and sells around 40 per cent faster, based on VahanBazaar listings data. State the registration month, the BS norm and that the car is sold on NOC to a non-NCR state. Buyers who cannot use it will not waste your time; buyers who can will know you have done the paperwork.
5. Apply for the NOC on Form 28. With the RC, insurance, a valid PUC if you can get one, ID and address proof, and the buyer's details. The Delhi RTO obtains a police report on the vehicle as part of the process; allow a few weeks.
6. Sign Forms 29 and 30 and the delivery note. Keep copies, and keep the NOC number. Ownership transfer and re-registration happen at the buyer's RTO; the seller's transfer report under Section 50 (14 days within a state, 45 days when the vehicle goes to another state) still applies to you.
7. Claim the road tax refund. Once the car is re-registered in the new state, apply to the Delhi Transport Department for the unused portion of the lifetime tax with proof of the new registration.
8. Confirm the transfer went through. Run the Rs. 99 check again a few weeks later. If the record still shows you as owner in Delhi, the car's challans and any winter-plan enforcement are still arriving at your address.

If You Are the Buyer Outside NCR

An ex-Delhi BS-IV car can be a good buy in a state that will register it, because Delhi owners are selling into a smaller market and pricing accordingly. Three checks protect you. Run the Rs. 99 RC check on the registration number before you travel: the emission norm field tells you whether the car is BS-IV, still protected by the December order, or BS-III, which is end-of-life with no protection and a harder sell in your own state later. Insist on the Form 28 NOC from the Delhi RTO before paying the balance; without it your RTO will not re-register the car, and a seller who says it "can be done later" is asking you to carry the risk. And do not plan on driving the car into Delhi this winter, whatever plate it ends up on; a non-BS-VI car registered outside Delhi is barred until 31 January 2027, and the age rule applies to use in Delhi regardless of where the car is registered.

This article is general information and not legal advice. The Supreme Court orders described are interim and the application reported on 5 August 2026 had not been heard when this was written; the position can change at the next listing. NOC, re-registration and road tax refund procedures, fees and acceptance of out-of-state end-of-life vehicles differ between states. Confirm the current rules with the Delhi RTO and the destination RTO before you sell, buy, scrap or apply.