₹20,000 crore unpaid e-challan? Supreme Court says ‘add it to electricity bill’ to recover

The Supreme Court has suggested that states and Union territories consider adding unpaid traffic e-challan dues to electricity bills to recover nearly ₹20,000 crore in pending fines, cited by India today. The suggestion came during a hearing on electronic enforcement of traffic violations, with the court stressing that issuing challans is ineffective if the fines are not recovered.

During the hearing, the court was informed that traffic authorities across the country have imposed e-challans worth around ₹45,000 crore, but only about ₹25,000 crore has been recovered so far. This leaves roughly ₹20,000 crore in outstanding traffic fines, prompting the bench to ask authorities to “find a way out”.

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“Add it to electricity bill”: Court’s suggestion

A bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan suggested the idea of linking unpaid challans to electricity dues to improve compliance. “If people are not paying traffic challans, add it to their electricity dues bill. They’ll 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 court said, as reported by hindustan times.

The proposal leverages the fact that electricity bills are recurring payments, and persistent non-payment can lead to disconnection, creating a strong incentive for defaulters to clear traffic fines. However, this is only a suggestion made during proceedings and not a binding order or nationwide rule yet.

Other recovery measures discussed

Besides the electricity-bill idea, the court suggested several administrative curbs on vehicles and licences until challans are cleared. These include:

• Blocking renewal of registration certificates (RC) and issuance of duplicate RCs for vehicles with pending fines.
• Preventing change of ownership and blacklisting such vehicles on the Parivahan portal.
• Withholding fitness and Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates.
• Stopping renewal of driving licences and even suspending existing licences in some cases.

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The court also said random checks of vehicles should be carried out and that, where a vehicle has an unpaid e-challan, the authorities could, if necessary, move to seize it.