SC notice to Centre on PIL for ban on tinted glasses in cars

New Delhi: The police drive against tinted glasses in cars got the boost it needed, with the Supreme Court on Monday asking for the Centre’s response to a PIL seeking complete ban on use of dark films on car windows, including those used by VIPs.
Given the arrest in the cash-for-vote scam within two days of the SC expressing strong displeasure over the tardy probe for two years, the notice issued to the Union government by a bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar could prove to be just the catalyst the police needed to launch a stringent drive against tinted glasses in cars.
Petitioner Avishek Goenka through advocate Shiv Sagar Tiwari said most crimes, including sexual assault on women, were committed by offenders who used cars with tinted glasses to evade public gaze and conceal their identity.
The Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 provides that glasses of windscreen and rear windows of vehicles should have a visual light transmission of 70% and for side windows it should be 50%. Goenka said the police did not have enough luxometeres to check visibility quotient of a windscreen and mostly depend on naked eye estimates. “Several incidents of rape and molestation have been reported in cars with tinted glasses, especially in Delhi and other metros where the police were expected to be the best equipped,” he said and sought a complete ban on use of dark films on car windows.