E-traffic courts likely to be introduced all over Gujarat shortly

Gandhinagar: An important public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Gujarat High Court on Friday in the matter of unrecovered penalties against e-traffic memos that are issued, during the hearing of which the high court hinted that e-traffic courts could soon be set up in the state.

Not limited to this, an FIR will be filed directly against every traffic memo that is issued for infringement of traffic rules and non-payment of the penalty against the e-traffic memo issued will lead to the offender being prosecuted.

The High Court has issued show-cause notices to the state government, the transport commissioner, DGP and other concerned authorities in this matter. The High Court has also sought an answer from the state government on the status of setting up of e-traffic virtual courts.

The High Court has also directed the petitioners to table before the court how many cases related to traffic memos were pending in various courts. Responding to the court’s direction, the petitioners have given an assurance that they will try to bring the data before the court at the next date of hearing.

Recovery of penalties running into crores of rupees is pending against traffic memos issued in the state. Timely recovery of the penalties cannot be carried out owing to an impractical and slow process. The High Court’s attention was drawn to the fact that recovery of around Rs 400- Rs 500 crores was outstanding against e-traffic memos issued in the state.

The petitioner specially brought to the notice of the court that under CRPC Article-468 (2), in cases of violation of traffic rules that attract penalty, the recovery of penalty against e-traffic memos issued can only happen within a six-month window period. The provisions of the said law prohibits the recovery of penalty in cases where six months have elapsed since the issuing of the e-traffic memo.

There are thousands of such cases in which recovery of fines is pending but provisions under the said law are preventing the police from collecting them. The exchequer of the state government is also suffering huge losses due to these uncollected fines.

If the offender doesn’t pay the fine on the spot, it is incumbent on the police to file a case of non-cognizable offence in the respective court but the police are failing in their duty to even file such a case in the permitted time-frame.

The offenders on their part are victims of the process in which they have to physically pay the fine or take delivery of the vehicle seized by the court. Therefore, as in many other states, the setting up of e-traffic courts in Gujarat would make life easier. DeshGujarat