The authorities might suspend a driver’s license if they fail to pay their traffic e-challan (fine) within three months. Similarly, if a driver receives three challans in a fiscal year for reckless driving or jumping red lights, their license could be seized for a minimum of three months, reported “The Times of India.”
These are a few of the steps the government intends to take to curb irresponsible drivers after it was discovered that there was widespread non-compliance and only 40% recovery of e-challan amounts, which are fines for breaking traffic laws. According to sources, if an individual has at least two outstanding challans from the previous financial year, the government has developed a system to link higher insurance costs.
The specifics were hammered up in response to a Supreme Court judgement that required 23 states and 7 union territories to submit compliance reports detailing the Central Motor Vehicles Act’s provisions for electronic monitoring. According to section 136A of the act, advanced technology including speed and CCTV cameras, speed guns, body-worn cameras and automatic number plate recognition systems must be deployed to improve traffic management and law enforcement. This is essential for impartial regulation and detection.
The report conveyed that Delhi has the lowest rate of recovery of fines raised by e-challans at just 14%, followed by Karnataka 21%, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh at 27% each and Odisha at 29%. Major states with recovery rates between 62% and 66% include Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana. According to data, around 80% of people who addressed the courts or had their challans referred to them received relief from the fines levied by the police.
People don’t pay penalties promptly for a number of reasons, according to sources. These consist of defective challans and late challan alerts. They also stated that the government will develop a thorough standard operating procedure that will include minimum requirements for cameras and guarantee that notifications of outstanding challans are given to drivers or vehicle owners on a monthly basis until payment is received.
For instance, a driver or owner of a car will receive an e-challan notification within three days and they have thirty days to either accept and pay the fine or contest it before the relevant grievance authority. Failure to take action within the time period would be seen as an admission of responsibility and failure to make the payment within 90 days would result in the suspension of one’s driver’s license (DL) or registration certificate (RC) until the amount is received.
The DL or RC holder can upload data to contest the fine and report inaccuracies in a challan. The complaint must be resolved by the grievance authority within 30 days, otherwise the challenge will be dismissed. The government will provide drivers and owners a one-time window of three months to confirm and update data on the Vahan and Saarthi websites to address the persistent problem of people changing their addresses and mobile phone numbers without updating authorities. Afterward, providing services like Pollution Under Control (PUC) and insurance renewal, DL and RC will need updating mobile phone numbers.
