Ever since the electronic challan system has been introduced in various states of the country, many people have been caught unaware while doing offences. A similar incident happened in Hyderabad where a man named Krishna Prakash created a record by violating the traffic rules 135 times. His motorcycle was seized for the offences.
What happened exactly?
The resident of Alwal, Hyderabad with the registration number TS10 ED 9176 had as many as 135 traffic fines against him. All the fines were issued electronically after he was found violating through electronic surveillance by the cops. The bike was stopped during a routine traffic check at Himayatnagar Y-junction. When the cops entered the registration details of the bike in the challan machine, they found as many 135 pending challans by the offender.
The total fine that is pending is of Rs. 31,556. The cops filed a charge sheet on the violator and seized his bike. He will have to go through a court hearing before and submit the fine before he can get his bike again. The challans given to him vary for a number of reasons including talking on the phone while riding, riding on the wrong side of the road, and riding without a helmet.
A number of violations also included jumping the traffic signals. The highest number of challans were issued for using the cell phone while riding followed by the jumping the traffic signals. The traffic police who seized the bike said that all the challans were issued were in non-contact form, which means that they were served online. However, after the number of challans increased, the cops sent the owner of the bike a notice but he ignored it and continued to ride without paying any fine.
E-Challan is becoming a common form of issuing fines in India. Traffic police use high-definition cameras to monitor the traffic flow and click pictures of the offenders. The fines are then electronically issued. It saves a lot of time and energy but there can be a few things that can go wrong with this method. Traffic cops do not check the documents physically and there have been times when people have violated the rules using fake number plates and the challans were sent to the owners of the vehicles even though they did not break any rule.
However, this is becoming a widely accepted form of issuing challans as it is very efficient too. Motorists can avoid such a high number of challans by ensuring that they follow the traffic rules even though there are no cops present at the spot. Also, most of the state police departments have set-up websites where motorists can put their registration number of the vehicle and can get all the information about the challans issued against the registration number.