The Supreme Court has instructed the Centre and state governments to strictly recover traffic-rule violation penalties and to deny transport-related services to vehicle owners who fail to pay their dues. The court said services should remain blocked until pending amounts are fully cleared.
The case, heard by a bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan, noted that e-challans are issued electronically across the country, but many motorists delay payment—often settling dues only when they try to sell a vehicle or transfer ownership. This has left a large volume of penalties unpaid.
During the hearing, it was stated that total fines imposed over different periods nationwide amount to Rs 49,194.05 crore, while only Rs 25,175.05 crore has been collected so far. The bench stressed that collection is more important than merely issuing e-challans, as enforcement depends on effective recovery.
The court directed that vehicles with unpaid fines be blacklisted on the Centre’s Parivahan portal to prevent sale or ownership transfer. It also ordered that fitness certificates (FC), pollution-under-control certificates, RC renewals or duplicate RCs, driving licence renewals and other online services should not be provided until dues are paid, and said authorities should not hesitate to temporarily cancel licences of repeat violators.
Separately, a case from Gurugram in Haryana was cited where a two-wheeler rider was found to have 126 violations and Rs 10.30 lakh in unpaid fines. Police seized the vehicle, with violations including riding without a helmet, operating without a number plate and lacking a pollution certificate.
