Court relief for east Delhi resident who faced ₹12L illegal parking fine

NEW DELHI: Granting relief to a man who was allegedly charged approximately ₹12 lakh for illegal parking and carrying out “commercial activity” on public land, the Delhi high court said the civic body could not justify the grounds on which the man’s vehicle was seized, and therefore, cannot ask for the fine.

Rahul Kumar moved court seeking release of his vehicle which was seized by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) in February this year after it received complaints from various agencies regarding illegal parking and commercial activity being carried out on public land in front of the Shamshan Ghat at Geeta Colony.

The civic body told the court that the petitioner, Kumar, was liable to pay a sum ₹11,99,830 as a penalty for committing the violations.

In an order on July 26, justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, directing the civic body to release the vehicle, said, “Since there is no justification of the respondent (EDMC) in seizing the vehicle of the petitioner, it cannot demand any amount towards removal charges or storage charges of the vehicle… Clearly, the action of the respondent in seizing the vehicle of the petitioner and raising the demand of approximately ₹12 lakhs... for release of the vehicle cannot be sustained.”

The judge also said no show cause notice was given to the petitioner, requiring him to remove his vehicle from the public land.

The court added that the civic body’s affidavit did not state as to what commercial activity was being carried out by Kumar on the public land.