Plans are to expand the project to all 60 evening courts depending on the response of the public.Traffic challans, of which a backlog of over two crore has built up in the district courts, may now be more readily disposed of with an innovative plan to have them handled by evening courts from December 20.
To be called Evening Courts for Traffic Challans (ECTC), the courts will convene on all working days across all district courts from 5-7PM. Starting from December 20, 11 evening courts at Patiala House, Saket, Rohini, Dwarka, Karkardooma and Tis Hazari will strive to clear 2,200 cases daily.
All traffic challans pending on or before December 31, 2021, listed on the Delhi traffic police portal, will be taken up except for those designated 'contested challan', 'Sent to digital court challan' and 'Cognizance declined challan'. The challan slips can be downloaded directly at https://traffic.delhipolice.gov.in/evecourtddc.
After this link started working on December 16, more than 9,000 challans have been downloaded. Among other uses, one can also use the link to change or update mobile numbers in the system.
Conceived under the leadership of Justice Manmohan, now a Supreme Court judge, the project is being launched on a pilot basis. The aim of the project is to make the whole process of traffic challan disposal people-friendly and hassle-free, said officials of the district judiciary. "We are trying to upgrade the present mechanism to be more people-friendly. This will make the process easy, hassle-free and swift and will bring down the backlog of challans in Delhi. This project could be a complete game changer for challan disposals," Sanjay Garg, principal district and sessions judge (Headquarters), told TOI.
Plans are to expand the project to all 60 evening courts depending on the response of the public. Once all evening courts start handling traffic challans, the daily disposal will rise to 12,000 challans per day.
Users can download up to five challans issued against their vehicles on any given day. The process will then involve them choosing a court complex of their choice from the seven district courts. They can visit these courts between 5 and 6PM or 6 and 7PM where the disposal process will take place in courts according to the law. A user can get another date only after five days of downloading the challan slips. This has been done to give priority to people who want to resolve the challan against them.
"This redressal mechanism will supplement the present mechanism. Once fully implemented, the disposal will be speedy and efficient. The number of challans disposed of could touch over 2.4 lakh per month, or over 28.8 lakh per year," said judge Garg.
