NEW DELHI – India’s Supreme Court has proposed developing a system to recover outstanding traffic fines from defaulters through their electricity bills.
The suggestions were made during a hearing on the digital monitoring of traffic violations and the recovery of pending penalties. A two-judge bench noted that issuing a large number of traffic challans was not enough if the fines were ultimately not recovered.
Among the measures discussed was a system under which unpaid traffic penalties could potentially be collected along with electricity bills.
The court also considered restricting the renewal of vehicle registrations for owners with outstanding challans, preventing ownership transfers and placing such vehicles on transport authorities’ blacklists.
Other possible measures include withholding vehicle fitness and pollution certificates, restricting the renewal of driving licences and suspending licences that have already been issued.
The court further discussed the possibility of impounding vehicles if their owners fail to clear outstanding penalties during checks.
During the proceedings, the court was informed that approximately 45,000 crore Indian rupees in e-challans remained outstanding across India’s states and union territories, while around 25,000 crore rupees had already been recovered.
