Cars with tinted glasses have a free run on roads

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 15

Cars with black tinted glasses that are banned could be seen moving around freely on city roads with the police turning a blind eye to the violators flouting the orders of the Supreme Court.

The soft-pedalling by the police is giving the gangsters and anti-social elements a chance to move around freely in vehicles with black tinted glasses. This is evident from the recent seizures of a white Scorpio from a gangster and a Fortuner car from Bhucho Khurd that had black tinted glasses.

It may be recalled that in August 2012, the Supreme Court had directed the police to ban coloured films of any visual light transmission or any other material on safety glasses and the windscreen of vehicles.

Residents of the city, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said vehicles owned by the leaders of political parties also had black films on their glasses and could be seen moving around in the city.

There are also shops in the city that sell black films. Senior police officials said they were not in a position to take action against those selling black films, as the material can also be used on glass doors or windows in offices and houses.

Even the use of dark, black or reflective glasses in vehicles is not permitted as per the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989. According to Rule 100 of the law, the windscreen and rear window glass of motor vehicles should have a visibility of at least 70 per cent, while the percentage for side windows should be at least 50.

Gian Chand Bansal, a social activist, said, “Removing coloured films from the glasses of vehicles is important as illegal activities behind dark glasses in vehicles can go unnoticed. Over the years, the number of vehicles has increased tremendously and so have crimes like kidnapping, theft and burglary. In the backdrop of this, glass with good visibility on the windows of vehicles is important”.

Vikas Garg, another city resident, said “I am aware that criminals use cars with tinted glasses to commit crime. But people like me want to use tinted glasses for valid reasons for protection from sunlight but have to suffer because of such people.”

SP (Traffic) Gurmeet Singh said, "We are continuously taking strict action against the violators who are using black tinted glasses on their cars and in the coming days we would intensify this campaign."

Speaking on the black tinted car recovered from gangsters today, he said this car passed from outer roads of the city, due to which it did not come to our notice.