Unpaid traffic challan? Your electricity bill could soon come into picture: Supreme Court suggests new recovery mechanism for Rs 20,000 crore dues

The Supreme Court on Monday suggested linking unpaid traffic e-challans to electricity bills as a possible way to recover a massive outstanding amount of around Rs 20,000 crore. The suggestion came while a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan was hearing a plea concerning the recovery of traffic fines. The court was told that while a large number of e-challans are issued across the country, only a portion of the fines are actually recovered.

Supreme Court seeks stronger recovery of e-challan fines

The top court was informed that states and Union Territories have around Rs 45,000 crore outstanding in e-challan dues. Of this, approximately Rs 25,000 crore has been recovered, leaving nearly Rs 20,000 crore still unpaid.

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The bench observed that merely issuing e-challans would not be sufficient and stressed the need for an effective mechanism to recover the fines.

The court suggested exploring whether unpaid traffic fines could be added to electricity bills. It noted that consumers are required to clear their electricity dues to avoid disconnection and asked authorities to examine whether a similar mechanism could help recover traffic challans.

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Unpaid challans could affect vehicle ownership transfer

The Supreme Court also suggested using the Parivahan portal to flag or blacklist vehicles linked to unpaid e-challans.

One proposal was to prevent the transfer of ownership of vehicles until their outstanding traffic fines are cleared.

The court also discussed the possibility of identifying vehicles with unpaid challans through checks on the ground.

SC suggests random vehicle checks for unpaid challans

The bench suggested random checking of vehicles to identify those whose e-challans have not been paid.

The court said that if a vehicle is found to have an unpaid challan, authorities could consider taking necessary action, including impounding the vehicle, as part of efforts to improve recovery.

The suggestions came against the backdrop of the large gap between the number of traffic violations recorded through e-challans and the amount of fines actually recovered.

Rs 45,000 crore in e-challans outstanding across states and UTs

According to the figures placed before the Supreme Court, around Rs 45,000 crore in e-challan dues remained outstanding across states and Union Territories, while about Rs 25,000 crore had been recovered.

The court's suggestions are aimed at finding practical ways to ensure that traffic penalties imposed through the e-challan system are actually collected, rather than simply accumulating as unpaid dues.


Inputs from agencies