India’s e-challan dilemma: 75% of traffic fines remain unpaid despite digitisation

India has a traffic challan predicament.

In a country where only about 11 crore people own cars, a whopping 8 crore traffic challans were issued last year. Almost every second vehicle on the road was fined at least once for traffic violations, including speeding, drunk driving, wrong-side driving/signal jumping, riding without helmets/seatbelts, and obstructive parking.

In 2024 alone, the total challans issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) reached a staggering Rs 12,000 crore—a figure that exceeds the GDP of many small nations. But here’s the hitch: some 75% of these fines (around Rs 9,000 crore) remain unpaid.

Take Delhi, for example, where traffic violations abound; government data shows that over 84% of traffic challans issued since 2021 have gone unpaid, and last year alone, a massive 94.3% of challans issued have not been cleared, despite efforts by the state government to facilitate fine settlements through local hearings in Lok Adalats.

Challans are not merely penalties, they are a system’s attempt—even if it’s often futile, as the numbers suggest—at holding the average citizen accountable for traffic violations, and are critical for road safety, especially since India is the accident capital of the world. (Transport ministry data indicates that an alarming 180,000 lives were lost to road fatalities last year, up from 157,000 in 2018.)

But are challans truly effective? Do people genuinely perceive traffic violations as serious offences with real consequences? Despite the introduction of an electronic challan system and the growing number of e-challans annually, why do the majority of these fines remain unpaid?