Tint films: Mangalore car owners to file review petition

TOI

Mangalore, 12 Jun 2012: The newly formed Car Owners and Consumers’ Association (COCA) will file a petition in the Supreme Court to review the ban on use of the tint films on four wheelers.

 

The review petition will be filed by advocate Padma Prasad Hegde when the court re-opens after vacation. He told TOI that court banned films on the basis of a PIL filed by Avishek Goenka without hearing other parties involved. There are lakhs of consumers and car owners who use these films, who were not heard at the time of passing the order. The matter should have been given wide publicity before passing the order,’’ he said.

 

In areas like the coast where temperatures are high, tint films are needed to cut the harshness of the sun and also improve cooling efficiency. In the absence of which more fuel will be spent on cooling. Moreover, we are not asking for dark tints, but within the permissible limits of the Motor Vehicle Act,’’ he said.

 

A bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar went by the limits prescribed in the MV Act and said anything beyond the visual light transmission (VLT) limit of 70% for the front and rear windshields and 50% for the side windows would be punishable.

 

Hegde noted that denying application of tint film, where the VLT between the manufactured glass and tint film is same, is unreasonable. Not all can afford manufactured glass which costs a packet,’’ he added.

 

The decision came on a PIL filed by Avishek Goenka, who had complained that cars with black film on window panes were being increasingly used for crimes, including sexual assault of women. Hegde said: We want to place all facts on record before the court.

 

Association president Mukesh Hegde said that barring safety glass on all cars, only high end cars came with tinted glass. Tinted films are affordable by all and within VLT should be allowed,’’ he said.