Owners of 77.17 lakh vehicles asked to appear before Lok Adalat over challan dues on March 12

The notices were issued by local traffic police departments on instructions from the Highway Safety Patrol (HSP), also known as Highway Traffic Police

Till December 12, the unpaid e-challan amount stood at Rs 1,175 crore after which the fine amounts for traffic violations were increased (Representational)

Owners of 77.17 lakh vehicles that defaulted on paying their e-challan dues for traffic rules violations have been served a pre-litigation notice asking them to be present before the Lok Adalat on March 12. The notices were issued by local traffic police departments on instructions from the Highway Safety Patrol (HSP), also known as Highway Traffic Police.

Since the e-challan system started in 2019, the HSP has executed 5.24 crores of e-challans in which 2.05 crore fines collectively amounted to Rs 682 crore, while 3.18 crore of e-challans were executed but remained unpaid with the total unpaid amount totalling to Rs 1,332 crore. Till December 12, the unpaid e-challan amount stood at Rs 1,175 crore after which the fine amounts for traffic violations were increased. Since December 12, the number of executed unpaid fines has jumped by Rs 157 crore till date.

Out of the 77,17,879 vehicles that were served pre-litigation notices, fines collectively worth Rs 23.48 crore have been paid while the owners of the remaining will have to pay the fines by March 12 or have to be present before the Lok Adalat. Those who fail to appear before the Lok Adalat on the said date and do not pay their dues will have to face prosecution before a regular court and may have to pay a higher fine.

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The HSP started the exercise of bringing motorists to the Lok Adalat in September last year. This year, a similar exercise took place earlier in September and December. In December 2021, through Lok Adalat, amount worth Rs 51.01 crore was recovered.

The motorists are issued notices by a text message which contains a link to download the notice which is in form of a PDF file. Last year, the HSP had approached the State Legal Services Authority and Bombay High Court in order to place these defaulters before a Lok Adalat.

	Total	Paid	Unpaid	Recovery %
Challan	5,24,02,694	2,05,71,001	3,18,31,693	39.26%
Amount	2,014,57,07,840	682,49,63,621	1,332,07,44,219	33.88%

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