The City Traffic Police have sent out a crystal clear signal to car owners in Bengaluru: all tinted films on car windows have to be removed and the glass must be 100% transparent. This follows the Supreme Court’s direction to strictly enforce Section 100 of the Motor Vehicle Act, which allows no tinted films on car windows.
The city police will begin ‘tint stripping’ camps from Thursday at 10 places in the city. These camps will go on till May 20 when the police will start penalising car owners who have not complied with the law. But according to traffic experts, this is going to be a mammoth exercise for the police. The experts claim that the Supreme Court order has said very little about the existing cars.
“The court order has given no scope for existing car users to opt for tinted glass which is manufactured by the company. If the tinted glass meets the standards prescribed by the court, why can’t I change the glass on my car”, wonders Mr Ashwin Mahesh, urban planner and member of ABIDe. Transport Commissioner Mr Shyam Bhat clarified that there is no scope for changing glasses for the existing vehicles. “Stripping the films is the only way out for the existing vehicles,” he said. Elaborating further, Mr M. A. Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said that the Supreme Court order clearly states that the existing cars cannot have any film or any other material which obstructs visibility inside the car.
“We are facilitating the free removal of films on car windows so that the law is implemented effectively. There is also no question of using anything to obstruct the vision inside the cars like curtains and shades since the order says no to films and any other material,” Mr Saleem said. Advocate V.Y. Kumar said that nothing can be said about the court order on enforcing the existing law, but the issue of using tinted glass which matches the standards prescribed by national agencies needs to be debated.