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Old 12th February 2020, 13:06   #1
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60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

According to a media report, the government is planning to set a limit of 60 days for the payment of fines for traffic violations. Failing to do so will result in a suspension of activities related to the licenses of the drivers and registrations of the offending vehicles.

It is also reported that offenders who are caught for a fresh offenses with unpaid challans will be treated as repeat offenders and will have to pay a higher penalty. While services like license renewal, ownership transfer will not be possible, applications related to permit, vehicle fitness and taxes will be processed.

According to the draft rules, the government has also laid down rules for seizure of documents. These include offenses like driving a defective motor vehicle in any public place resulting in bodily injury or damage to property, driving vehicle which is violating safety, pollution and noise norms and driving of an uninsured vehicle or one with expired insurance.

60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans-echallan11.jpeg

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Last edited by blackwasp : 12th February 2020 at 13:07.
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Old 12th February 2020, 14:54   #2
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

This is not fair on the driver's part. I can speak about Kolkata and here the process of assigning fines have been automated with speedcams and cams at signals to identify violaters. However, majority of the signals do not have a clear stop line(which holds a INR 100 fine) or the yellow light just blinks for a second or 2 before turning red and as such it makes it really difficult to avoid crossing the stopline. A large number of speed cams also do not function properly and give out erroneous speed readings.

Secondly, there's no proper way to challenge any of these challans that I know of. Last year they started a campaign where we had to pay 30% of the total accumulated fine amount, which I availed as it didn't turn up to much. But if this is implemented, a lot of fines will be assigned without proper validity or without giving drivers and owners a chance to challenge the same.

Before bringing out any further rules, I think the givernment should work on fixing their own problems. Cab aggregators are major violaters IMO and they can't address a single deadly issue like driving with high-beam in the cities which is really blinding in some cases, especially flyovers. Before charging the drivers and car owners, it's better to fix and better the (non-)existing infrastructure.

Last edited by aenkay91 : 12th February 2020 at 14:57.
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Old 12th February 2020, 14:59   #3
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

Good move in it's own right to help collectibility. Please note that I am not signing off on how the fines are levied and/or whether the offence itself was subject to challenge or not.

I check my traffic violations on a weekly basis for both my self-driven vehicle and my chauffeured one. Have paid (online) maybe 4 no-parking & traffic signal violations in the last 10 years.

Don't see why violators should pay the same amounts when they are finally caught years later. Unpaid fines should go up substantially after a reasonable period, or even double like they do in the West.

Last edited by itwasntme : 12th February 2020 at 15:01.
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Old 12th February 2020, 15:10   #4
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

This is like a tortoise asking other land dwellers to speed up. Aren't we still in the era of snail mail for violations, if at all they do send one home? Or do we keep checking the violations page every 60 days to clear the backlog? I got a snail mail of.a violation in a location I didn't even go to, leave alone at 10.30 at night. What to do about all those mismatched, illegally enforced violations that come in?

The only way this will work is if the enforcement authorities send an instant sms to the registered persons number, citing location, type of violation and preferably a photo of the same caught by officer/CCTV. Once the sms is sent the registered owner can immediately know the violation or cross verify the violation if the he/she was not the driver.

No one wants to sit on fines and endlessly postpone the payment, just make an easy way to know and pay the fine instantly and we can be done with it. Reading such punishments make me feel that India will soon be the 2nd country on earth to have a draconian, flogging/carrot on a stick social credit system.

Reminds me of the movie Equilibrium.
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Old 12th February 2020, 15:46   #5
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

What happens to the situation of vehicles being sold over and unpaid challans (obtained during previous owner's timeline) that would have easily gone beyond the 60 day limit?

I guess the obvious answer is the new owner takes up responsibility.
But under the new set of rules being decided, does the earlier owner's DL get tagged or the unpaid challans ownership gets 'transferred' with the vehicle ownership transfer?
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Old 12th February 2020, 17:47   #6
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

The Kolkata Police has been doing this for a while now.

We get messages like these. Photos are available on KP website for stop line violations,not sure about other violations.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dark.knight View Post

The only way this will work is if the enforcement authorities send an instant sms to the registered persons number, citing location, type of violation and preferably a photo of the same caught by officer/CCTV. Once the sms is sent the registered owner can immediately know the violation or cross verify the violation if the he/she was not the driver.
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60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans-screenshot_2020.jpg  

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Old 12th February 2020, 19:37   #7
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

Right, so the cops impound the documents. After that, who is responsible for the safe-keeping of those documents? It is not funny how many driving licences have been 'lost' or 'misplaced' by the Delhi Traffic Police in their process of seizing and suspending DLs for 3 months, for people caught speeding or jumping red light signals. It is a pain to get a duplicate document issued, and numerous folks I know have had to suffer through it.
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Old 12th February 2020, 22:06   #8
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

As good as the headline reads, I'm not sure it is really a properly implemented move. While forcing people to pay up, they need to specify a redressal mechanism. Right now, at least in Bombay, this system had 0 checks from traffic police side.



My cars have been challaned in the past and wherever legit, I've immediately paid up the fine. However, in recent past my car was challaned for "causing hindrance to traffic" and in 2nd case "parked in non parking zone". In both instances, my car was parked at exactly the same location below my house, which is not a designated No Parking zone (I triple checked). I e-mailed the cops and they said some police man from a particular chowki issued the challan and I should take it up with him. They should've a centralized mechanism for redressal of such issues rather than ask people to run after issuing cops. I shared the pics which just show my car license plate, without any proof of it being incorrectly parked. If they want to collect fines like the West, they should offer similar proof of violation as well. If an image makes no sense, the fine shouldnt be collectible.



So yeah, this is another case of a good headline without any thought put in for proper implementation.
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Old 13th February 2020, 08:08   #9
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

If we can happily pay our credit card bills in <30 days, why can't we pay off the traffic challan in 60 days? My only wish = clear communication, a system for which doesn't seem to exist today. I casually checked the e-challan website & saw that one of my cars had a 6-month old challan issued against it . One cannot expect every car owner to log into the system and check for offences. First, a system must be established to notify car owners via SMS & email. Else, most won't have a clue.
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Old 13th February 2020, 09:49   #10
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

Quote:
Originally Posted by ninjatalli View Post
What happens to the situation of vehicles being sold over and unpaid challans (obtained during previous owner's timeline) that would have easily gone beyond the 60 day limit?

I guess the obvious answer is the new owner takes up responsibility.
But under the new set of rules being decided, does the earlier owner's DL get tagged or the unpaid challans ownership gets 'transferred' with the vehicle ownership transfer?
This is exactly what I am facing right now. I purchased a second hand car and the previous owner has two improper parking fines that are only payable in court. I could not check the fines before because now they have changed the system, you need to enter the mobile number of the owner to check it.


Anyway, now I shall have to go to court to settle the fines and claim them from the previous owner. Which is no easy task in itself.
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Old 16th February 2020, 17:43   #11
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

Quote:
Originally Posted by ninjatalli View Post
What happens to the situation of vehicles being sold over and unpaid challans (obtained during previous owner's timeline) that would have easily gone beyond the 60 day limit?
I believe the offence will be caught during transfer of ownership and at that point you will have to fully pay the dues along with pending fines before the ownership transfer is recorded. It is the correct way to do it in my opinion since that will ensure that the transferror will be held accountable.

I guess anyone making a purchase of second hand car can also proactively check the Vaahan site to determine if there are outstanding fines and have that as part of the negotiations of sale.

One more point to add to our list of items in "How to buy a second hand car in India"
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Old 17th February 2020, 09:00   #12
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
If we can happily pay our credit card bills in <30 days, why can't we pay off the traffic challan in 60 days? My only wish = clear communication, a system for which doesn't seem to exist today. I casually checked the e-challan website & saw that one of my cars had a 6-month old challan issued against it . One cannot expect every car owner to log into the system and check for offences. First, a system must be established to notify car owners via SMS & email. Else, most won't have a clue.
The Mumbai Police App is decent. Only cars whose chassis/ engine numbers that you are aware of (hopefully only your own cars) can be registered by you along with a phone number. Once registered, I assume they will send messages to the phone number (have been fined just once in over 10 years). I see this as a matter of perfecting the system - will happen sooner or later.

The bigger challenge to compliance is the process of appeals/dispute resolution. Till the dispute resolution is made seamless this system will keep causing heartburns. There are enough cases where people are fined for fines in areas they have never been to and it is unfair to expect them to pay up.
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Old 17th February 2020, 10:13   #13
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

Quote:
Originally Posted by ninjatalli View Post
What happens to the situation of vehicles being sold over and unpaid challans
The unpaid challans will surely come to light at the time of RC transfer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
One cannot expect every car owner to log into the system and check for offences. First, a system must be established to notify car owners via SMS & email. Else, most won't have a clue.
Having the phone number updated in the car's registration details might help. When I was issued a speeding challan on Eastern Freeway 2 years back (my first and hopefully last ticket), I was promptly sent an sms with a link to the offence summary page the same day.

While we are on the subject, I don't see why the e-challans should deliberately remain unpaid. Unlike when a traffic cops pulls us over, there is no grey area here. A computer does not apply its own judgment on culpability e.g. you drive over the set limit and you get a ticket! As simple as that! There is no other side of the argument here

Last edited by Romeo_Mike : 17th February 2020 at 10:25.
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Old 17th February 2020, 10:31   #14
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

Quote:
Originally Posted by sudeepg View Post
I believe the offence will be caught during transfer of ownership
Quote:
Originally Posted by Romeo_Mike View Post
The unpaid challans will surely come to light at the time of RC transfer.
Ideally yes, not necessarily always.

So to give visibility on this; when I sold my car via Ola CashMyCar; they did check for unpaid challans and vetted this before closing the financial transaction.

However the system is not error-proof; I realized later that they did a search for my car as MH-AB-XY-0###; but there's also another unpaid challan for my car as MH-AB-XY-### (without the zero).

The car got resold nearly 6 months later by OLX; and I'm sure the new owner has no visibility of this challan. But I do hope he's checking the site because he's paid another challan in Pune for a recent offense!

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
One cannot expect every car owner to log into the system and check for offences. First, a system must be established to notify car owners via SMS & email. Else, most won't have a clue.
+1 to this.

I have paid 3 challans till date (all Mumbai) + the above unpaid one; I have received zero alerts for any of them. My mobile number has been updated online long ago!

Last edited by ninjatalli : 17th February 2020 at 10:34.
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Old 17th February 2020, 11:41   #15
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Re: 60-day limit to pay your Traffic Challans

What is the most effective way of checking pending challans? I checked on the Parivahan website and there are no challans showing. But when I check the Delhi Traffic Police website, 2 court challans dating back to 2016 show up.
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