The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday put forth an unusual but potentially effective way to recover unpaid traffic challans; by linking the outstanding amount to electricity bills.

A bench of the top court, comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan on Monday expressed concerns over the lack of an effective mechanism to recover unpaid traffic challans and suggested that States and Union Territories explore linking pending fines with electricity dues.

The bench proposed the idea while it was hearing a plea concerning the electronic enforcement of traffic violations and the recovery of pending e-challan fines.

“Issuing e-challans not enough”: SC

Justice Pardiwala, during the hearing, emphasised that simply issuing thousands of e-challans would serve little purpose unless there was an effective system to ensure that the fines were actually recovered.

Justice Pardiwala remarked, “Police may issue thousands and lakhs of such e-challans. Question is recovery of fines as sought to be imposed by way of the e-challans.” The court was informed that States and Union Territories have yet to recover around Rs 20,000 crore in unpaid e-challan dues.

Against the backdrop of the same, the Bench suggested that outstanding traffic fines could potentially be added to electricity bills, giving vehicle owners an additional incentive to clear their dues.

The bench asserted, “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.”

SC suggests a string of measures to recover fines

The Supreme Court also discussed several other possible measures to ensure that vehicle owners do not ignore outstanding traffic challans. Among the suggestions were withholding the renewal of vehicle registration certificates until all pending challans are paid. The court also suggested that duplicate registration certificates should not be issued for vehicles with unpaid fines.

The bench further proposed blocking changes in vehicle ownership details until outstanding traffic dues are settled. Vehicles with unpaid challans could also potentially be blacklisted on the Parivahan portal, while ownership transfers could be restricted where fines remain pending.

Fitness, PUC and driving license renewals under lens

Towards the end of the hearing, the court suggested that fitness certificates and Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates could be withheld in cases pertaining to unpaid traffic fines.

Another measure discussed was halting the renewal of driving licenses where challans remain unpaid. The bench also advised that steps could be considered to suspend driving licenses that are already in force when outstanding fines continue to remain unpaid.