Did you know that you could contest a traffic challan? The road transport ministry has now clearly laid down the procedure and timelines for doing so. Keeping this key provision in focus, the ministry on Wednesday notified the procedure and timeline for payment of challans and e-challans for traffic and transport-related offences.
The norms have been notified considering that hardly 38% of the e-challans are paid by violators across states and UTs. There have also been instances of some states announcing blanket relief to violators, which, experts say, defeats the purpose of introducing electronic monitoring of violations to rein in errant drivers and vehicle owners. TOI looks at the newly laid-down procedures.
You need to either accept and pay the penalty mentioned in the challan, or contest it within 45 days, on centralised echallan.parivahan.in portal, along with documentary evidence, before the designated authority for redressal. Failure to contest the challan within 45 days will be considered deemed acceptance by the violator. In such a case, the penalty must be paid, in physical or electronic form, within the next 30 days (75 days from issue of challan).
Till now, a penalty that was not paid within 90 days was automatically sent to the virtual court. However, with the matter sub judice, transport authorities could not stop any RC- and DL-related services such as transfer and renewal of RC, duplicate DL, NOC and PUCC. This largely led people to skip paying penalties. This was also the reason that many ignored challans and didn’t raise objections, despite many states, including Delhi, having such a provision. Under the new norm, no challan will go to court automatically.
Any challan challenged before the authority (through the portal) must be resolved within 30 days after hearing the submission and documentary evidence. If convinced with the evidence, the authority can quash the challan. The authority needs to record this in writing and upload the orders on the portal. Where the authority rejects submissions, it needs to record the reasons in writing. In that case, you need to pay the challan within 30 days of uploading the order on the portal.
The applicant can file an application before a court after depositing 50% of the challan amount.
If the person neither pays the challan nor contests it before a court within 30 days from the authority’s order, it will be deemed that the person has accepted it and must pay the amount within the next 15 days.
You will get a notice daily till the specified deadline for the challan payment. In case of non-payment, till the disposal of such challans, the licensing or registering authority won’t process any application, except those related to tax issues. Your DL or vehicle will be flagged as ‘Not to be Transacted’ on the portal and this will be automatically intimated to you.
No, it applies only to compoundable challans (that can be paid on spot or through the portal). Non-compoundable challans can be settled only in court. However, most of the current non-compoundable offences will soon become compoundable. The changes have been proposed in the Jan Viswas Bill 2.0, which has been introduced in Parliament.
Any police officer in uniform or any other officer authorised by states/UTs can issue either a physical or electronic challan for violations. States and UTs can auto-generate challans through electronic monitoring and enforcement systems or manually by officers.
These will be delivered physically within 15 days and, by electronic means, within three days. Details of challans will be recorded chronologically on the portal of state/UT govts (including police).
While the notified procedures are intended to curb violations and inculcate better traffic discipline, some states are yet to notify the ‘authority’ for looking into complaints and resolving them.
