Soon, traffic violators in Chandigarh may be able to settle challan online

Looking at quick disposal of rising traffic challans, the district court is planning to set up a virtual court for adjudication of such cases.

The single step will eliminate the need to be physically present at the District Courts Complex in Sector 43, as traffic violators will be able to pay the fine online.

Thousands of e-traffic challans are issued by Chandigarh Traffic Police and their burden falls on courts. “Such was the backlog in May that the sessions court had to set up a Lok Adalat every Saturday just to dispose of traffic challans,” said Surender Kumar, member secretary, State Legal Services Authority (SLSA), Chandigarh.

As per data made available by SLSA, a whopping 23,816 traffic challans were disposed of from May 20 to September 2 through Saturday Lok Adalats. Even on September 8, serpentine queues were seen as over 5,000 litigants reached the court complex with the hope of a reduced fine.

Amid the rising number of e-challans, primarily due to installation of CCTV cameras at every light point, the district court has written to the Punjab and Haryana high court, seeking a sanction to set up an e-court to settle traffic challans, said Kumar.

He said, “The virtual court will be on the lines of the one in Faridabad, Haryana. We have got a response from high court that the proposal is under consideration. ”

At the latest Lok Adalat, Kumar said over 5,000 cases were pertaining to traffic challans only. The District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) had to increase the number of traffic police help desks from two to 10. By evening, around 3,880 challans were settled by imposing a fine of ₹23.75 lakh.

For the remaining cases, tokens were issued and it was decided that Lok Adalat will also be held on the coming Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, especially for traffic challans.

Hope of lower fine leading to long queues

Talking about the sudden spike in number of people approaching Lok Adalat for traffic challans, chief judicial magistrate-cum-secretary, DLSA, Navjeet Klair said, “Though people can visit courts any day to pay the fine, they are under the impression that they will have to pay lower fine at Lok Adalat.”

This, as per Klair, is often the case. “The fine is imposed as per the judge’s discretion. For instance, people fined for speeding will be fined different amounts based on the actual speed recorded.”