In a temporary relief to owners of around 35,000 motor vehicles that were seized for violation of lockdown norms in Bengaluru city, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday permitted the city police to release the vehicles by collecting a tentative fine amount.
However, the High Court made it clear that the release of the vehicles is subject to final outcome of the prosecution launched against the vehicle owners under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Disaster Management Act before the jurisdictional magistrate.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty passed the interim order in an application filed by the State government.
The tentative fine for release of four-wheelers is ₹1,000 and for three- and two-wheelers it is ₹500, the Bench said.
As per the procedure, seized vehicles can be released only by the jurisdictional magistrate on an application filed by the vehicle owners. To avoid crowding of magistrate’s court in view of social distancing norms, the government sought permission from the High Court to authorise the police officers to release the vehicles by collecting a bond from the vehicle owners.
