Though the Delhi Traffic Police have been going hammer and tongs in penalising vehicles with tinted glasses, several vehicles with company-fitted tinted glass enjoyed a kind of "immunity". The traffic police could not initiate action against them as it does not possess equipment to measure visibility of sun film. According to Supreme Court ruling, visibility for windscreens must be 70% and 50% for windows.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satyendra Garg said that presently action is being taken against vehicles which got tinted windows through local dealers and not against those with company-fitted tinted glass as per law. The senior police officer reasoned as they don't have the luxometer, an instrument required to measure transparency of glass. "We are not equipped for determining VLT (Visual Light Transmittance) and ensuring that it adheres to the Motor Vehicles Act," said Garg.
The device, luxometer can measure the level of opaqueness in windows owing to the application of black films but this device is a scarce resource and is very scantily available with the police personnel in India. Delhi Traffic Police has challaned around three lakhs vehicle with tinted glass in 2012. However, in the absence of luxometer no single car having company fitted tinted glass could not checked or penalised.
Penalisation of errant vehicles in 2012 has fattened the police coffer by Rs three crore. The police have intensified the drive after the Supreme Court direction's in April 2012 and it was further intensified following the gang-rape in a moving bus with tinted glasses and curtains on December 16. About 505 chartered buses have been booked for tinted glasses during last year.
A total of 2,90,075 vehicle has been prosecuted which include 2,87,752 cars, 505 chartered buses, 1,466 taxis, 35 RTVs, 145 private interstate buses, 51 school buses and some other vehicles were prosecuted for using tinted glasses in 2012. Police personnel also removed films on spot from the glass.
