Unpaid Traffic Challans Worth ₹20,000 Crore: Supreme Court Suggests Adding Dues to Electricity Bills

A Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan suggested while hearing a case related to the electronic enforcement of traffic violations. The case also deals with the recovery of unpaid e-challan fines. The matter is part of a long-running road safety public interest litigation filed in 2012 by Coimbatore-based orthopaedic surgeon S Rajaseekaran.

Supreme Court Suggests Linking Unpaid Challans to Electricity Bills

The court said that simply issuing e-challans is not enough if authorities cannot recover the fines. Justice Pardiwala pointed out that police can issue thousands or even lakhs of e-challans, but the main issue is making sure that violators pay the fines.

“It is not just sufficient to keep issuing e-challans. Police may issue thousands and lakhs of such e-challans. The question is recovery of fines as sought to be imposed by way of the e-challans,” Justice Pardiwala said.

The court then discussed linking unpaid traffic challans with electricity bills. It suggested that people with pending fines could have those dues added to their electricity bills.

“If people are not paying traffic challans, add it to their electricity dues bill. They’ll have to pay electricity bills; otherwise, the power line will be disconnected. Work it out. In this country, you have to find a way out,” the court said.

However, this is a suggestion made by the Supreme Court and not a new rule requiring vehicle owners to pay traffic fines through electricity bills.

₹45,000 Crore in E-Challan Fines Yet to Be Recovered

During the hearing, the court was informed that states and Union Territories have around ₹45,000 crore in e-challan fines to recover. Authorities have recovered approximately ₹25,000 crore, leaving about ₹20,000 crore pending.

In addition, the court discussed several other ways to improve the recovery of unpaid traffic fines. These measures could affect different types of vehicles, including commercial vehicles, trucks, pickups and mini trucks, if authorities apply such restrictions to vehicles with pending challans.

Other Measures Suggested for Unpaid Traffic Challans

The court discussed measures that could restrict vehicle-related services until pending traffic challans are cleared. These include:

• Stopping the renewal of vehicle registration certificates.
• Blocking changes in vehicle ownership details.
• Preventing the issue of duplicate registration certificates.
• Blacklisting vehicles with unpaid challans on the Parivahan portal.
• Withholding vehicle fitness and PUC certificates.
• Stopping the renewal of driving licences.
• Taking steps to suspend driving licences that are already active.
• Carrying out random vehicle checks and taking necessary action against vehicles with unpaid challans.

These measures could be important for commercial vehicle owners and fleet operators because trucks, pickups and mini trucks depend on valid registration and other documents for regular operations. In addition, pending challans could create issues when owners need to complete vehicle-related services or transfer ownership, depending on how authorities implement the measures.

Perhaps these steps could give authorities more ways to recover pending traffic fines instead of relying only on the issue of e-challans. However, the exact process for implementing these suggestions will depend on the authorities concerned.

The Supreme Court made these observations while examining the recovery of e-challan fines and the wider implementation of electronic traffic enforcement under the Motor Vehicles Act and related rules.