Keeping Seized Vehicles in Police Custody for Years Serves No Purpose; Record Video, Release After Verification: Punjab & Haryana High Court
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has held that retaining seized vehicles in police custody for long periods is pointless and leads to depreciation, decay, and environmental harm. The Court highlighted that modern digital recording—videos and photographs—can fulfil evidentiary purposes, enabling quicker release of vehicles to their owners.
In the case before it, the Court allowed the release of a Maruti Swift car that had been held as “case property”. The Court noted that keeping the vehicle idle in the police parking lot risked deterioration and loss of identity, observing that the refusal to release the vehicle simply because co-accused had not been arrested was unjustifiable.
The Court directed that vehicles no longer required for investigation should be digitally documented and released after formal verification under the relevant law (namely Section 497 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which corresponds to Section 451 CrPC) rather than kept indefinitely. It stressed that vehicle-owners’ livelihoods and vehicle-financing banks are adversely impacted by long delays
