Implementing the Supreme Court’s order, the Hyderabad City Traffic Police on Thursday booked about 3,500 violators across the city for tinted glasses on their vehicles.
Even VIPs, including ministers and celebrities, were not spared. Minister for backward class welfare Baswaraju Saraiah and actor Sunil were booked by the police for tinted glasses. Mr Saraiah, however, admitted that the drive was necessary and agreed to remove the black film from his vehicle.
About 42 government vehicles, including 13 police vehicles, were also penalised.
“We had issued circulars two weeks back via all forms of media and had distributed five lakh pamphlets to inform people about the court’s order, but only 10-15 per cent of vehicle owners complied,” additional commissioner of police C.V. Anand said.
However, as Thursday was the first day of the drive, only `100 was charged instead of `500.
Many car owners, meanwhile, complained that car accessory shops were charging about `500 just to remove the black film.
DCP traffic P.V.S. Ramak-rishna said, “We have info-rmed all the ministers and VVIPs about the rule and have asked them to comply with the decisions. Ho-wever, only vehicles of VVIPs with Z and Z+ security are exempted from implementing the court directives.”
The apex court’s directive came on May 4, 2012 after a writ petition filed by one Avishek Goenka. The petitioner had pointed out that the use of black films helped violators commit crimes. At times, hein-ous crimes like dacoity, rape, murder and even terrorist acts were committed in or with the aid of vehicles having black films.
In the judgment, the court reiterated that as per Rule 100 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, the use of any material other than the safety glass manufactured as per the requirements of law was unlawf-ul. The Visual Light Trans-mission (VLT) for front and rear wind screens sho-uld be 70 per cent or more and side window glasses should have a minimum VLT of 50 per cent.