During a recent hearing on electronic enforcement of traffic violations, the Supreme Court of India addressed the significant issue of unrecovered e-challan fines, which currently amount to over ₹20,000 crore across the country.
A bench comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan proposed that states and Union territories explore integrating unpaid traffic e-challan dues with electricity bills. The rationale behind this suggestion is to enhance compliance, as electricity bills are recurring payments, and non-payment can lead to service disconnection, thereby creating a strong incentive for defaulters to clear their outstanding traffic penalties.
The Scale of Unpaid Fines
The court was informed that while traffic authorities have issued e-challans worth approximately ₹45,000 crore, only about ₹25,000 crore has been successfully recovered. This leaves a substantial sum of roughly ₹20,000 crore in pending traffic fines, prompting the bench to urge authorities to find effective recovery mechanisms.
Leveraging Electricity Bills for Compliance
The judges emphasized that simply issuing challans is ineffective if the fines are not collected. They stated, "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." It is important to note that this is a suggestion made during court proceedings and not yet a binding order or a nationwide rule.
Other Proposed Recovery Measures
Beyond the electricity bill integration, the Supreme Court also discussed several other administrative measures to enforce payment of traffic fines. These include:
- Blocking the renewal of registration certificates (RC) and the issuance of duplicate RCs for vehicles with pending fines.
- Preventing changes of ownership and blacklisting such vehicles on the Parivahan portal.
- Withholding fitness and Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates.
- Stopping the renewal of driving licenses and, in some instances, suspending existing licenses.
The court further suggested that authorities conduct random vehicle checks and, if necessary, move to seize vehicles found with unpaid e-challans.