The Supreme Court has directed states and Union Territories to take strict action to recover unpaid e-challans, including seizing vehicles and blocking key vehicle-related services until outstanding traffic fines are cleared.

 

In its September 28 order in the road-safety case ‘S Rajasekaran vs Union of India’, the top court directed authorities to ensure the recovery of unpaid e-challans. It said vehicles could be seized and their registration certificates (RC), Pollution Under Control (PUC) and fitness certificates, as well as resale and ownership transfer, could be blocked until the fines are cleared, reported Live Law.

 

The court was informed that approximately ₹49,194.05 crore remained recoverable towards e-challans issued across the country, of which ₹26,175.05 crore had been recovered.

  

The court said merely issuing thousands of e-challans would serve little purpose unless authorities also ensured recovery of the fines. “It is not just sufficient to keep issuing e-challans to the person who is alleged to have violated the provisions of the Act. Police may issue thousands and lakhs of such e-challans but the question is how do you recover the fine as sought to be imposed by way of those e-challans,” the top court bench observed.

 

What action can be taken against vehicles with unpaid e-challans?

 

As part of the recovery mechanism, authorities have been directed to refuse the renewal or issuance of duplicate registration certificates where dues remain unpaid. Requests to change the vehicle owner’s address will also not be entertained until the outstanding amount is cleared.

 

The court further directed that fitness certificates be withheld and vehicles be blacklisted on the Parivahan portal, effectively preventing their sale or transfer of ownership until the dues are settled. Authorities have also been directed to conduct random checks and impound vehicles where owners have failed to comply with e-challans. For multiple violations, the SC has ordered that driving licence renewal be suspended, with measures also to be taken to suspend licences that are currently in force.

 

The bench noted that while lakhs of challans were being generated, recovery of the fines through courts was becoming difficult because of the sheer volume of cases. The court said the existing system, under which e-challans are ordinarily forwarded to the jurisdictional court for recovery of fines, would not be adequate given the growing number of challans awaiting recovery. It therefore ordered additional measures to ensure that unpaid fines do not remain merely as pending challans.

 

The court also warned authorities that its directions would have little effect if they were not implemented on the ground. “We may keep issuing directions for an indefinite period of time, but if all these directions are going to remain on paper and ultimately not going to be implemented by the authorities, then one fine day, we may have to take some stern action which may not be liked by the authorities.”

 

Other road-safety directives issued

 

The Supreme Court also directed states and Union Territories, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and other road-owning agencies to ensure that electronic enforcement systems installed under the statutory framework are artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled. These systems must be capable of identifying the 12 categories of violations specified under Rule 167A(3) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and facilitate the generation of e-challans in accordance with law across the country.

 

The Court also ordered the integration of VAHAN-4, SARATHI, e-Challan, e-DAR, iRAD and traffic control rooms into the National Road Safety System.

 

To improve transparency, the Court directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to create a public online dashboard to track the implementation of Section 136A of the Motor Vehicles Act read with Rule 167A of the CMVR and the October 28, 2025 SOP.

 

The dashboard is to provide State/UT-wise and National Highway corridor-wise information on corridors identified for electronic enforcement, the number and functional status of electronic enforcement devices, the categories of violations being monitored, and violations detected vis-à-vis e-challans generated. The information is to be updated at least once every month. The Court also directed that annual data may form part of MoRTH’s “Road Accidents in India” report.