A 35-year-old chartered accountant was sitting at home when he received a WhatsApp message from a friend asking him to check his traffic violation challans online as the latter had received a few.
Tushar Jain, a resident of east Delhi’s Bhajanpura, was shocked to see 13 violation receipts issued against his registered vehicle in the last two months. “I was shocked because while driving I didn’t realise there were cameras installed at certain locations,” he said. Mr. Jain received all challans for overspeeding; three of them were of ₹2,000 each and the rest were to be settled in court.
According to data received by The Hindu from Delhi traffic police, over 16 lakh challans were issued during lockdown between March 23 and June 15.
Overspeeding challans
While 15,75,183 challans were issued for overspeeding, 37,451 were issued for improper parking and 2,853 challans were for lane violation. All the violations during the period were caught on camera and the details were uploaded on the Delhi traffic police website against the vehicles’ registration numbers.
The number of challans, which had come down significantly after the new Motor Vehicles Act came into force last year on September 1, went up during the lockdown.
The total number of challans issued from September to December last year stood at 7.14 lakh – 1.75 lakh in September, 1.87 lakh in October, 1.66 lakh in November and 1.86 lakh in December. During the same period in 2018, the total number of challans stood at 20.08 lakh.
Less traffic
Special Commissioner of Police (traffic) Taj Hassan said the number of challans increased during the lockdown because there was less traffic on the roads. “These challans were issued based on violations recorded on camera, without any interaction. Drivers tend to drive fast on empty stretches,” he said.
Explaining further, Mr. Hassan said the speed limit has been set considering the vehicle volume on city roads and depending on pedestrian safety, market complexes and commercial activity at certain points. Those places are relatively less crowded now due to which people tend to violate speed limit.
“Another reason is that earlier we did not have so many cameras as we do now. The challans issued in January and February this year were relatively less also because there were vehicles on the road to maintain speed limit,” he added.
Mr. Hassan said that earlier, during night, there was hardly any traffic monitoring, but now cameras work 24X7, recording violations at all hours.
A 28-year-old Noida resident who didn’t wish to be identified said that she received 15 violation receipts for overspeeding and was puzzled about how to proceed with court challans. “I had difficulty paying the online challans too because the payment getaway kept crashing. But the bigger problem is I don’t know what to do with court challans – when and where to visit, what to do,” she said.
Virtual courts
The Delhi traffic police have 389 CCTV cameras installed across the city to digitally capture violations involving overspeeding and signal jumping. The details were shared by the Delhi High Court while inaugurating two virtual courts here for online settlement of traffic challans for violations captured on CCTV cameras.
The virtual courts, as per Section 208 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, will issue special summons to the violator via her/his mobile phone. Once a violator receives an intimation on the mobile phone, she/he would have the option to either contest the summons or pay by visiting the web portal https://vcourts.gov.in. The requisite minimum fine can be paid online on the day and the time of the violator’s choosing within the stipulated period.
The two new virtual courts are an addition to the first virtual court in the country, established in the Capital on July 26 last year. The existing virtual court dealt with “on-spot traffic challans” generated by the Delhi traffic police through E-Challan application developed by the National Informatics Centre. It has so far disposed of 7,30,789 challans, resulting in online collection of ₹89.41 crore fine till May 7 this year.
Lok adalats
Another way of settling traffic challans is through lok adalats, which encourage parties to settle cases outside the formal court system.
Cases where parties can reach an amicable settlement such as bounced cheques, bank recovery cases, civil suits, motor accident claims, service matters, family matters and traffic challans are taken up by lok adalats.
However recently, the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) cancelled the National Lok Adalat scheduled for July 11, 2020 in view of “the unprecedented scenario” caused by COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, four National Lok Adalats were held in which 52.93 lakh cases were disposed of. Of them, 26,16,790 cases were pending in courts and 26,76,483 were pre-litigation cases.
NALSA said the National Lok Adalats scheduled for September 12 ,2020 and December 12, 2020 will be held as per the approved dates.