E-challan backlog swells beyond courts: Digital technology adds to pile-up

Six years on, disposal machinery fails to catch up

It has already grown into a serious problem — especially for fleet operators, online used-vehicle sellers, ride-hailing platforms, and individual car owners.

 

Digital technology has triggered a sharp rise in e-challans issued by the government to errant drivers between 2019 and 2024. But despite penalties worth ₹42,545 crore, nearly 60 per cent remain unresolved in courts unable to cope with the mounting backlog.

 

The government has collected only ₹17,431 crore over this period. Year-wise collections have dropped steeply — from 78 per cent of assessed penalties in 2019 to just 27.5 per cent in 2024, according to data from Lawyered, a firm that uses technology and Vahan data to help transportation companies monitor and resolve penalties.

 

The slide continues.In the first six months of 2025, 55 million challans were issued; 80 per cent remain pending. In value terms, challans worth ₹10,298 crore were issued, but collections have been a weak 20 per cent.

 

In the past six years, challans have quadrupled — from 27 million in 2019 to 80 million in 2024, with 300 million issued in total. Yet case disposals rose far more slowly,  doubling from 13 million in 2019 to 26 million in 2024. Over the six years, 176 million cases were disposed of — just 40 per cent of the total.

As issuance outpaces disposal, pending challans have soared from 7.6 million in 2019 to 57.4 million in 2024 — a seven-and-a-half-fold increase. Closure rates have collapsed, from 63 per cent in 2019 to only 28 per cent in 2024.

 

The bottleneck lies in overloaded courts. Annual court referrals jumped from 6.7 million in 2019 to 27.9 million in 2024, but court disposals barely moved, inching up from 1.7 million to 2.4 million. In 2024, as many as 80 per cent of court-bound challans remained unresolved.

 

Virtual courts, set up to speed up disposal, have had only a limited impact. As of January 31, 28 virtual courts across 21 states had processed 66.6 million cases, with fine collections of ₹714.99 crore. Yet their uptake remains low.

 

Himanshu Gupta, CEO, Lawyered, says, “For commercial vehicles — whether cars or trucks — national permits cannot be renewed if challans are unresolved. For instance, a midsized ride-hailing fleet partner has ₹58 lakh in pending challans for fewer than 100 cars. A car aggregator has 249 blacklisted vehicles, 93 per cent of which remain unresolved, hurting fleet availability.”

 

For private car owners, the hurdle arises when selling a vehicle. Ownership cannot be transferred without a no-objection certificate, which is denied until all challans are cleared. 

Piled up 

60% of e-challan penalties worth ₹25,114 crore pending in courts

Only 20% of challan penalties issued between January and June 2025 have been collected; the rest remain pending

Challans have quadrupled in six years, but disposals have only doubled

Pending challans have risen seven-and-a-half-fold in six years

Case closure rates have dropped from 63% in 2019 to just 27.5% in 2024