The Supreme Court on Monday (Sep 28) suggested ways for states and Union Territories to recover unpaid e-challan fines. The suggestion was given by the top court after it was informed that fines amounting to around ₹20,000 crore were yet to be recovered. The court was hearing a plea related to the electronic enforcement of traffic violations and recovery of unpaid e-challan fines. It was a part of a long-running public interest litigation (PIL) petition on road safety filed in 2012 by Coimbatore-based orthopaedic surgeon S Rajaseekaran. A Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan heard the case.
What the court said?
“If people are not paying traffic challans, add it to their electricity dues bill. They’ll have to pay electricity bills else power line will be disconnected. Work it out. In this country, you have to find a way out,” the court said. Other measures discussed included not allowing the renewal of registration certificates for vehicles with pending fines, preventing the issuance of duplicate certificates and blocking changes in ownership details until all outstanding challans were cleared. The court also suggested blacklisting vehicles with unpaid challans on the Parivahan portal and blocking ownership transfers. It further discussed withholding fitness and Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates for such vehicles, as well as preventing the renewal of driving licences and taking steps to suspend licences already in force.
Justice Pardiwala said that issuing of e-challans is not useful if people end up not paying it. He pointed out that the question is about recovery of fines. The court was informed that states and Union Territories have to recover around ₹45,000 crore in e-challan fines, of which approximately ₹25,000 crore has been recovered so far. One of the judges said the government needs to find ways to recover the fines rather than merely issuing challans after being informed about the pending dues, according to a Bar and Bench report.

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