The Supreme Court on Monday said authorities need to take practical steps to recover unpaid traffic challans, observing that simply issuing e-challans is not enough if the fines are not actually recovered.
During the hearing, Justice JB Pardiwala suggested that authorities could explore linking unpaid traffic challans with other government dues, including electricity bills, as one possible way of recovering the outstanding amount.
“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, as reported by Bar and Bench.
The court was informed that states and Union territories have around Rs 45,000 crore in e-challan dues to recover, while approximately Rs 25,000 crore has been recovered so far. Justice Pardiwala said the focus should be on recovering the fines rather than merely issuing thousands or lakhs of challans.
Measures discussed by the court
The Supreme Court suggested several steps that could be considered against vehicles with unpaid challans. These include blocking the renewal of registration certificates, stopping the issue of duplicate registration certificates and restricting changes in vehicle ownership until the dues are cleared.
The court also suggested that fitness certificates could be withheld until pending challans are paid. Vehicles with unpaid dues could also be blacklisted on the Parivahan portal, while ownership transfers could be restricted.
The court further discussed preventing the renewal of driving licences linked to unpaid challans and taking steps to suspend licences that have already been issued.
It also suggested withholding Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates for vehicles with outstanding challans.
Another measure discussed was random checking of vehicles. If a vehicle is found to have an unpaid e-challan, authorities could consider taking steps to impound it, the court said.
Justice Pardiwala stressed that authorities need to find practical solutions while keeping ground realities in mind.
However, the suggestion to add unpaid traffic challans to electricity bills was made during the hearing and is not a direction requiring immediate implementation. The other measures were also discussed as possible ways to improve recovery of pending traffic fines.