NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday suggested recovering unpaid traffic e-challans by linking them to electricity bills, after noting a massive Rs 20,000 crore outstanding balance.While hearing a plea, the bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan was told that, although a vast number of traffic challans are being issued, the recovery of fines remains minimal.The top court was informed that states and UTs had around Rs 45,000 crore outstanding in e-challans, of which approximately Rs 25,000 crore has been recovered so far.The court said that simply continuing to issue e-challans is not enough, and that recovering the fines is just as important.
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“If people are not paying traffic challans, add it to their electricity dues bill. They will have to pay electricity bills else power line will be disconnected. Work it out. In this country, you have to find a way out,” the bench said.The apex court also floated the idea of blacklisting vehicles with unpaid challans on the Parivahan portal and blocking the transfer of their ownership.Justice Pardiwala proposed random checks on vehicles to identify those with unpaid e-challans, aksing the authorities to work at the ground level.“Let there be random checking of vehicles and if found that e-challan has not been honoured, necessary steps to be taken to impound the vehicle itself,” the bench said.