Bombay High Court ordered Maharashtra to frame a clear policy for removing seized vehicles dumped in public areas. The Court warned that inaction is causing major inconvenience to citizens.
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MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court told the Maharashtra government to make a proper policy to handle the growing problem of vehicles that the police have seized and then left or dumped on public roads, especially near police stations in Mumbai.
A division bench of Justice GS Kulkarni and Justice Advait Sethna said that the police must set up a proper system so that these seized vehicles are quickly moved to a proper storage place. The Court said these vehicles should not be kept on roads or in public areas anymore.
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This order came after the Marathon Maxima Co-operative Housing Society from Mulund filed a petition. They complained that many vehicles seized by the police were lying on open private land near their building. These vehicles were not taken away for many years and were just left there.
The society said these abandoned vehicles were making their clean surroundings look dirty. They also said it caused many problems for people living there and for people walking on the road. The Court took this issue very seriously and said that even two years ago, they had already raised this same concern but nothing was done till now.
Back in April 2023, a similar bench where Justice GS Kulkarni was also present, had already asked the government to make a policy about how to manage these types of seized vehicles. But in almost two years, the authorities had not made any such policy. The Court clearly mentioned this in its recent order dated April 8.
The Court said,
“In Mumbai, open spaces are not available and are a major constraint, hence parking/dumping of seized vehicles cannot be resorted to, causing a serious inconvenience/nuisance to the public at large. We may take judicial notice of the fact that several police stations are inundated with such seized vehicles being dumped/parked for years together outside the police stations encroaching on public roads, which are essential public amenities to be enjoyed and utilized by public at large.”
The Court said that parking seized vehicles on roads, pavements, and even private lands is a big problem, especially when people already struggle to walk safely in the city.
The Court added,
“In our opinion, for a city like Mumbai or any other city which encompasses constraints on open spaces, encroachments on footpath, pavements etc. which itself makes the life of pedestrians miserable and added to such woes, are the problems of such illegal parking on open public spaces, pavements/footpaths and in the surroundings of the police stations.”
The judges also criticized the civic authorities and traffic police for not taking any action. They said that these departments cannot just ignore the problem.
“When pedestrians themselves cannot normally move on roads and footpaths, the Traffic Department cannot remain a mute spectator on these issues,”
-the Court said.
Looking at all these problems, the High Court told the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) and the Inspector General of Police, Maharashtra, to come up with a detailed system. This system should make sure that all seized vehicles are quickly moved to proper storage spaces and not left on public roads or near residential buildings.
The Court also ordered that a full policy should be made under the supervision of the Principal Secretary of the Home Department and that it should be submitted to the Court.
The next hearing in this matter will be on April 29.
In this case, Advocate Seema Chopda appeared for the housing society that filed the petition.
Advocate Jyoti Mhatre, under the guidance of Advocate Komal Punjabi, represented the Municipal Corporation and the Mumbai Fire Brigade.
Government Pleader PH Kantharia represented the Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic).
Advocate Kiran Gandhi, instructed by Little & Co, appeared for the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited.
CASE TITLE:
Marathon Maxima Co.Op. Housing Society v BMC.
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