Mumbai, May 20 -- Public roads and footpaths in space-starved Mumbai cannot be used to dump vehicles confiscated by the police, the Bombay high court said recently while hearing a plea filed by a Mulund-based housing society regarding the matter. A bench of justices GS Kulkarni and Advait Sethna also said that merely moving such vehicles to a dumping yard won't suffice and called for a permanent solution to dispose of them. "In a city like Mumbai, which has an acute scarcity of space and limited space on public roads and footpaths, such public spaces cannot be encroached by dumping or storing vehicles seized or confiscated by the police," the bench said. The bench made the remarks while hearing a petition filed by Marathon Maxima Cooperative Housing Society in Mulund, which raised concerns about a local police station dumping towed or confiscated vehicles outside its gates, causing obstruction. The society claimed that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had also turned a blind eye to its complaints regarding the dumping of vehicles on its access roads, making it inaccessible even in cases of emergencies. In response, the Mumbai traffic police said that it had advised all police stations across the city last month to move abandoned or confiscated vehicles to a dumping yard. As per the traffic police's affidavit, the BMC had also awarded a contract to a private company to identify and scrap abandoned vehicles. The bench urged the state government to identify convenient locations in each civic ward to dump confiscated or seized vehicles. "Merely dumping of the vehicles at the dumping site would not suffice. In the event these vehicles are no longer required, a continuous action is required to be taken to dispose of these vehicles, for which appropriate advisory needs to be issued," the court said. The court posted the matter for further hearing on July 2 and asked the traffic department to mention the steps it proposes to take for a long-term solution to the issues raised in the plea. It further said the directives issued by the traffic police have to be meticulously followed by all police stations....