Here's how to pay Traffic Challan online? A step by step guide

Having an e-challan and don’t know how to go about it? Here we have listed a step by step guide for you to pay your challans online.

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With ever-increasing road rage cases in India, the number of road accidents has been increasing continuously. To ensure the safety of the drivers and others on the roads, the need of issuing a challan has become even more important so that drivers don't break the traffic rules. But what is a challan and how one is supposed to pay it? A challan is an official paper issued as a ‘penalty’ to the driver of the vehicle under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, who tends to violate the traffic rules and regulations of the country.

The traffic police department has the right to issue a challan to any driver who overrules the traffic guidelines. Usually, e-challans are issued on traffic violations like jumping red lights, driving an unauthorised vehicle, driving without a driving license, over-speeding, drunk driving, etc. 

Further, with everything moving on digital platforms, e-challans have now come into being. An e-challan is a computer-generated challan for breaking traffic rules. The government of India took this initiative to make things convenient and transparent for traffic police as well as the general public. This application is integrated with the Vahan and Sarathi applications that cover all functionalities of the Traffic Enforcement system. But if one fails to pay the e-challan on time then the challan is sent to the virtual court. The virtual courts aim to eliminate the need for a lawyer and utilize court resources to provide litigants with an avenue to settle petty disputes like challans. 

How can one pay challan online? 

Here we have listed a step-by-step guide to paying your e-challans online: 

Step 1: Visit the digital traffic website: echallan.parivahan.gov.in. Click on the ‘check challan status’ tab to proceed. 

Step 2: Enter the challan number, vehicle number, or the Driving License (DL) number to check the status of the challan. Enter the details of the option you’ve selected along with the captcha and click on ‘get details.’

Step 3: The details and status of your challan will be visible as you click on ‘get details.’ However, if there is no challan issued, then the row will remain blank. Further, you can also track the total number of challans filed against your vehicle. 

Step 4: Once your challan is visible, you can then make online payments. As you scroll down, you will get the ‘payment option,’ after which you’ll have to click on ‘Pay now.’

Step 5: Select the mode of payment - credit card/debit card or Net-banking. Once you have made the payment, you will receive a 'Payment Successful' message along with the transaction ID on your e-challan. Do make a note of the transaction ID for future reference.

How to pay a challan offline? 

If you plan to pay the challan offline, you just have to carry the letter for a traffic violation and visit the nearest traffic police station in your city and pay the challan there itself.