Thiruvananthapuram: The government has issued an order to extend the validity of the pollution certificates for BS-IV (Bharat Stage Emission Standards-IV)  two-wheelers and three-wheelers from six months to one year. 

In August 2022, the then Transport Minister Antony Raju issued an order to change the validity of the pollution certificates to six months. This change contravened the union government's law and a plea reached Kerala High Court. 

The court aside the state government's order which stipulated a uniform period of validity of Pollution Under Control (PUC) Certificate for all categories of vehicles, irrespective of whether they had been manufactured under BS-IV (Bharat Stage Emission Standards-IV) or BS-VI (Bharat Stage Emission Standards-VI) norms.

Meanwhile, documents released by the Transport Department under the Right to Information Act indicated that the minister's decision was based on the appeal made by pollution test agencies in the state. It may be noted that Transport Secretary Biju Prabhakar and Transport Commissioner S. Sreejith had submitted a report on the matter. The report citing the union government's Motor Vehicle Act,  clarified that the state government lacked the authority to shorten the validity. However, the minister decided to pursue the decision.

There are approximately five lakh BS-IV vehicles (in the two-wheeler and three-wheeler categories) in the state.