What to do if you receive a wrong traffic challan

Ever since social media has caught on, it has been abuzz with various instances and funny anecdotes narrated by people who have been wrongly issued a traffic challan. People from various parts of India have relayed their experiences with incorrect challans showing up at their doorsteps. A man from Uttar Pradesh claimed to receive a challan for not wearing a helmet. It would have been fine, had he actually not been driving a car! In the same way, many people have claimed that they have received a traffic e-challan for overspeeding when their vehicle was not even on the road on that particular day. So in the interest of helping people not fall prey to this problem, the Traffic Police has come up with an innovative way.

By means of creating a Parivahan portal online, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has provided people with the opportunity to check and verify their e-challans online. If a challan is issued to you or your vehicle, an SMS with the challan number will reach the registered mobile number, using which the person can check and verify whether the challan is correct or not. This portal can also be used to do an online RC check and to keep tabs on the blacklist status of your vehicle. Along with that, the government has also been working on improving their camera based automatic surveillance system. It works by scanning the number plate of the vehicle committing the offence, after which it correlates it to the official database. From there, an e-challan is generated and sent to the registered mobile number.

However, if you feel that you have been issued a challan by mistake, you can now contest and challenge the challan virtually online. As per Section 208 of the Motor Vehicles Act (1998), the person who receives a court summons and e-challan on their registered mobile number can challenge the violation issued against them, or pay the dues. To do so, they can log on to the MoRTH’s web portal and contest the challan. Additionally, they can also write to the official email id of the concerned traffic police of the state to challenge the challan. You can dispute your challan offline as well by visiting your nearest Traffic Police cell. In both the cases you need to have sufficient evidence to plead your case. You must have all vehicle papers updated and in place, and should provide the courts with relevant information such as your chassis number, the GPS location (if available) of the day of the issuance of a challan, the registration number of the vehicle, etc.

There are some instances where you can be wrongly fined, but you can easily contest the challan. If you have been fined for not wearing a helmet when you are a turban-wearing Sikh, you can challenge the challan issued against you. Also, if you have your vehicle’s documents stored digitally on your phone or an app, then you can contest the e-challan as well.