Bihar ‘risking’ apex court contempt over tinted glasses

They zoom carelessly past police mobiles, posts, pickets and stations with black, green and silver films on vehicle windows in violation of a recent Supreme Court (SC) order to remove them.

They zoom carelessly past police mobiles, posts, pickets and stations with black, green and silver films on vehicle windows in violation of a recent Supreme Court (SC) order to remove them.

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Bihar has not been able to launch any special drive against such vehicles or to fine them and may also not be able to do it sooner. The reason: Lack of resources as well as a bit of will too.

Chandrika Prasad, traffic SP of Patna, says: gWe have utmost regard for the SC order.

We will follow it in letter and spirit. But we have no control over resource availability.

We are writing to all government departments to ensure that their employees remove glasses tinted beyond factory standards. Many have started complying with it.

Just take a stroll in any of the busy roads of the city and you would find numerous examples of such vehicles. The tinted glasses are popular and universally used, including by ministers, MLAs, MLCs, politicians of various parties, government officials and even police officers.

Police here are yet to advertise or announce the mandatory removal of tinted glasses or films beyond permissible limits from the vehicles. Several vehicle owners and drivers are still under the impression that the SC order is meant only for New Delhi.  Why are you asking me this question here? Only people in metros have been asked to remove dark films from their vehicles. Please donft try to fool me,h said Lalan Singh, who stopped his Scorpio, with windows that were completely opaque from outside, at a petrol pump.

Though tinted glasses are being removed, we have not started any special drive for it. Police have other work to do,h said a senior police officer posted in Patna.

Perhaps the officer was taking the August 3 warning issued by the apex court too lightly. The court had warned of contempt action against the DGPs of the states and police commissioners of union territories if they failed to take action against such errant vehicle owners.

The SC order came on April 27 in the wake of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Avishek Goenka against use of tinted glasses on vehicles. Concerns were raised over rising instances of criminals using coloured films on the windows of their vehicles.

When contacted by HT, Goenka, a Delhi-based PIL activist, who is also keeping a watch on the compliance of SC order across the country, said.  As of now, Bihar, to the best of my knowledge, has not initiated any action.

The apex court has already expressed dissatisfaction over tardy implementation of its order. The court has allowed manufactures to produce vehicles that allow at least 70% visual light transmission from the front and rear windshields and 50% for the side windows.