Tehseen Poonawalla's old car smashed, towed out of private parking in Delhi. What does law say?

Former Bigg Boss participant and popular entrepreneur and political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla recently took to Twitter to share that his old, unused car was smashed and towed by a private agency, under Delhi Transport Enforcement authority supervision. 

What 

Tehseen Poonawalla tweeted that his 15-year-old Toyota car was being towed by a private towing agency, Go Green ELV Handlers, from his private parking within the boundaries of the gated society he resides in.

The act was justified to be in accordance with the law passed by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2021, banning all overage petrol and diesel vehicles from plying on Delhi roads or being parked at public freeways.

According to Poonawalla, the car carried a sentimental value because it was the car in which his pet dog had died. Poonawalla says that he could never get rid of the car due to this sentimental reason even after it crossed its life limit.

Instead, he kept the car covered in his private parking within the gated society in Delhi where he resides. 

Not the first case 

DailyO spoke to Tehseen Poonawalla to know more about the issue and he said that ever since he tweeted about the incident, he has been flooded with similar instances from people whose vehicles had to face a similar fate.

What is the overage car law?

According to the law passed by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Transport Department has set an age bracket for certain vehicles in Delhi:

• Petrol vehicles that are more than 15 years old, and
• Diesel vehicles that are more than 10 years old 

The vehicles that date beyond the bracket are called end-of-life (ELV) vehicles.

According to the Supreme Court and NGT, the registration and use of ELVs (unless parked in private spaces) are not allowed.

The Transport Department will take ELVs from the roads or public spaces in Delhi and give them to the Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF), such as in Poonawalla’s case, as per Rule 10 (vi) of the RVSF Rules 2021.

All that's wrong with the Poonawalla case

It is a fact that Tehseen Poonawalla's car does fall beyond the age bracket laid down by the law.

However, there are certain bits of this story that seem to be a bit of a stretch on part of the scrappers and the Transport Department.

• The law only applies on the overage vehicles that are on the road, and does not include vehicles parked in privately owned parking-spots. Poonawalla's car was picked up; rather, smashed and then picked up by the authorities from his own parking spot .

• When Poonawalla asked for the reason, the authorities said that if a vehicle is parked on a society freeway, it is considered to be on a public road: a rule that has no existence in the book of law. 
• Poonawalla has repeatedly stressed on the fact that his vehicle hadn't been used ever since it crossed the legal age bracket and that it had only been kept in his private parking for its sentimental value. This eliminates any reason for the vehicle being seized.
• He was given no prior notice about the action, and only got to know about the incident when his neighbour's watchman informed him. 
• The only legal document that was provided to Poonawalla was a siezure notice, which was stuck to the wall near the spot where his car was parked. 
• Personnel from the private scrapping agency Go Green ELV Handlers were travelling inside the car of the transport enforcement authorities. When Tehseen asked both about who was responsible for damaging the car, the transport authorities passed the blame on to the scrappers. 

The Matiz case from May 2023

In May 2023, the Delhi High Court instructed the Delhi Transport Department to halt the disposal of an elderly woman's old Daewoo Matiz hatchback when the court ultimately recognised the car as her "family car" and an important part of their family history.

Sushma Prasad, a retired government employee, made a plea to the Delhi High Court to prevent her Matiz car from being destroyed because it carried great sentimental value and was considered an important part of her family's history.

The Delhi High Court asked the Delhi Transport Department to halt the scrapping of the car, on the condition that the car would not be used on the road.

What to do if you have an ELV?

First, in Delhi, an end-of-life vehicle is:

• a 10-year-old diesel vehicle; and
• a 15-year-old petrol vehicle.

Though the reasons behind Poonawalla's car being seized still remain unknown and fall clearly beyond the logic of any law, if you have a vehicle that is beyond the ELV age bracket, you have two options:

• get rid of your old vehicle by getting it scrapped, or
• transfer it to a different state, where the 10/15-year law doesn’t apply.

For diesel vehicles that are 15 years or older, they will not receive a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) at all.

For diesel vehicles that are within 10 to 15 years, they can receive an NOC for use in other states, provided they keep off the NGT-restricted areas. 

For petrol vehicles older than 15 years, you can obtain an NOC to use them in other states, subject to the condition that the NOC will not be issued for places that the state has identified as restricted areas based on the directives of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).