Breaking: No Forced Traffic Challan Payments in Telangana

The Telangana High Court has intervened in the traffic challans issue and passed a key directive to the police and the transport department. On Tuesday, the High Court stated that the police cannot stop citizens on road and coerce them to pay traffic fines on spot. 

The judgement comes days after Chief Minster Revanth Reddy openly suggested automatic debit from the bank accounts of traffic violators, which received mixed reactions from the public. The single judge bench of Justice NV Shravan Kumar made the observations on hearing the writ petitions filed by a resident of Hyderabad over the brazen methods adopted by the traffic police to enforce rules and payment of fines. 

The court further cautioned the police not to resort to aggressive tactics like snatching of keys and seizure of vehicles to compel the public to pay pending challans and further directed to allow citizens to clear their fines as per their choice voluntarily. The court also stated that the police must follow due procedure instead of taking up strong arm measures. 

In November last year, the same single judge bench observed that imposing fines for traffic violations without specifying the provisions and subsequently offering discounts on fines weakens the fear of legal consequences and also encourages traffic indiscipline.

The court made these remarks after hearing the writ petition of the same petitioner who contented through his counsel that he was penalised without mentioning the provision. The court then directed the police to file a counter affidavit in the matter. 

Public can have a sigh of relief with the court’s directions because a sense of panic gripped among daily commuters when Revanth Reddy came up with the idea of auto debit for traffic violations during his recent appearance. The latest order from High Court will fly in the face of Chief Minister’s proposal.

It would be interesting to see how the government responds on the court’s ruling in this aspect as the issue of traffic challans which frequently makes headlines in Telangana.