[handsofsteel]

Originally Posted by Shyam92

I am sorry but what exactly is WebEx? How to access it? Can you pls brief on the same?

Thanks.

It’s a video conferencing app. Think of it as zoom.

[krishnakumar]

How does one “go to court” for offences reported only online?

I was a victim of one such false “No Parking” offence in Bangalore. I was checking for offences on the Vahan portal and found an offence for parking on a no park zone. I could exactly remember what had happened that day and the offence was completely false.

I had stopped the car to let my aged parents get down in front of a restaurant and went to park the car inside a dedicated paid parking lot barely 200m away. While waiting to merge back into the traffic, a “kaamchor” traffic constable had apparently clicked the photo from behind. I don’t have that picture now but it showed my car with the indicator turned on and me checking the mirrors to merge back into the traffic. I never got down from the car and the engine was running the whole time.

To be clear, the road was only “No Parking”. Not “No Stopping”. People were coming and getting down kerbside on cabs, autos and other private cars.

I paid the fine which was Rs. 500 to avoid the hassle. But in such cases, how does one dispute online? I don’t recall seeing such an option but maybe I am wrong.

[handsofsteel]

Originally Posted by krishnakumar

How does one “go to court” for offences reported only online?

I was a victim of one such false “No Parking” offence in Bangalore. I was checking for offences on the Vahan portal and found an offence for parking on a no park zone. I could exactly remember what had happened that day and the offence was completely false.

I had stopped the car to let my aged parents get down in front of a restaurant and went to park the car inside a dedicated paid parking lot barely 200m away. While waiting to merge back into the traffic, a “kaamchor” traffic constable had apparently clicked the photo from behind. I don’t have that picture now but it showed my car with the indicator turned on and me checking the mirrors to merge back into the traffic. I never got down from the car and the engine was running the whole time.

To be clear, the road was only “No Parking”. Not “No Stopping”. People were coming and getting down kerbside on cabs, autos and other private cars.

I paid the fine which was Rs. 500 to avoid the hassle. But in such cases, how does one dispute online? I don’t recall seeing such an option but maybe I am wrong.

The Delhi traffic police sms led me to a website which had two options- pay and contest.
The Mumbai sms led me to a website which did not have the contest option (if I remember correctly). It only had a contact us email at the bottom. Sent them an email regarding the grievance. I gota prompt acknowledgement. Later on downloaded their app and the grievance was showing up there.

[Meph1st0]

Originally Posted by handsofsteel

I was disturbed with this and contacted a few lawyer friends. All of them asked me to just pay and keep moving. Other friends asked me to ignore this and worry about it only at the time of sale of the vehicle.

Definitely Mera India/ Bharat Badal Raha Hai and your perseverance really paid off. We all hesitate dealing with RTO/courts. Things have improved greatly but people are apprehensive about dealing with them.

One point that I couldn't get around is what your lawyer friends suggested. I can understand amm admi saying that but lawyers who work in this environment should know better and should have suggested better.

[AnInternetUser]

My experience related to the traffic court was quite disappointing here in Mumbai:

Sometime last year, I'd parked on the road outside my gym. Naturally, I don't park there for too long and am almost always out within an hour. Since it isn't a no parking zone, it has never been an issue.

Except for that day. That day, I received a challan within fifteen minutes of parking there for something along the lines of "abandoned car obstructing road". My first reaction was to record a quick video to show how my car was not obstructing -- how do you obstruct a road by being parked in a legal parking zone at 08:30 AM for fifteen minutes anyway?

Severely cross with the authorities, I immediately refuted this challan via the Mumbai Traffic Police app. I received the expected apathetic response in what must've been 2-3 months. The justification said that the challan was issued by a constable and hence they will not budge. As if traffic constables here are the torchbearers of honesty and integrity...

Since the app does not give an option to reply to the justification, I ended up emailing them and received the same silly response. I really wanted to visit the nearest police station but did not have the time to do so. In the meanwhile, I kept the challan pending out of principle -- why should I be forced to pay a fine for an offence that I haven't committed?

The next thing I know, I received a court notice for non-payment of challan. The incident occurred in Versova, and the matter was to be heard at the traffic court in Thane, 30km away. I had no option but to begrudgingly pay the challan knowing that I would have to waste more time and spend more than the 500-rupee fine to go and be heard.

I have a lot to say about just how wrong this felt as a law-abiding motorist, but I will save that for some other time... For now, it seems like we're going one step forward with digitization of traffic offences and systems and two steps back with these citizen-unfriendly processes.

Some extra context: I've parked there for over a year, and it's never been an issue. Other motorists park there all the time, actually obstructing the road, and it's never been an issue for them (never seen a cop in this area). The road was almost fully empty at that time.

Apologies if this is slightly off-topic in any way.

[handsofsteel]

Originally Posted by AnInternetUser

My experience related to the traffic court was quite disappointing here in Mumbai:

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I have a lot to say about just how wrong this felt as a law-abiding motorist, but I will save that for some other time... For now, it seems like we're going one step forward with digitization of traffic offences and systems and two steps back with these citizen-unfriendly processes.

Some extra context: I've parked there for over a year, and it's never been an issue. Other motorists park there all the time, actually obstructing the road, and it's never been an issue for them (never seen a cop in this area). The road was almost fully empty at that time.

Apologies if this is slightly off-topic in any way.

If I may ask, how much was the fine? Would've been horrendous had it been like Delhi (Delhiites seem to be considered as multi-milloionaires by somebody at the Traffic Dept with fines starting from 4 figures and many going into 5 figures).

I agree, doesn't make sense to go to Thane for this. However, one could find out if there's a WebEx link for the court. In my case too, the summons had no such mention and I got to know about it only after a personal visit. Maybe it is here that the traffic 'agents/ lawyers' fill the void. Logical step for the Traffic Court/Dept should be to include the weblink as part of the summons. wonder what's stopping them.

[getgoing]

I have one query. Last year, I had an event when my car PUC expired by two days since I was out of station. When I returned, I was going to a neighboring fuel station for a PUC check. While driving there, I came to a halt at a traffic signal; I was in the first row because I was the first to stop after the organge light. Here I observed that the traffic police have a practice of randomly checking online on their mobile devices for vehicles that are visible to them during the signal. They accidentally checked for my car no and discovered that my PUC had failed. The traffic sergeant approached me and directly asked to show the PUC certificate.

Here, I told them that I was out of station and returned last evening with my railway tickets. They ignored all these and kept on saying the challan would be done. So here, my question is: how do I get the PUC if it has failed? Anyone can be struck by my situation and caught while approaching the PUC check station. Should there not be any grace period in such cases? May be for 7 days . Now the question is that , If a car starts polluting, it will not wait till the expiry date of the PUC certificate. So why should we not given the grace period ?

[handsofsteel]

Originally Posted by getgoing

I have one query. Last year, I had an event when my car PUC expired by two days since I was out of station.
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So here, my question is: how do I get the PUC if it has failed? Anyone can be struck by my situation and caught while approaching the PUC check station. Should there not be any grace period in such cases? May be for 7 days . Now the question is that , If a car starts polluting, it will not wait till the expiry date of the PUC certificate. So why should we not given the grace period ?

If you read the first post regarding my first encounter with the Delhi Traffic Cops, it was a very similar case. My PUC was 3 days overdue. They just didn't listen and wanted to fine me 20,000/- which is the fine in Delhi. they also asked me to verify my identity as I believe the fine is double in case someone other than the owner is driving it (this is what they told me, I have not yet verified it). They tried to browbeat me into paying a cash fine of Rs 3000/- or threatened to send the case to court. Unfortunately, there is no way out of this mess (much as your reasoning is logical). In such a case, post this experience, I'll gladly call their bluff and ask them to send me to court.

[AnInternetUser]

Originally Posted by handsofsteel

If I may ask, how much was the fine? Would've been horrendous had it been like Delhi (Delhiites seem to be considered as multi-milloionaires by somebody at the Traffic Dept with fines starting from 4 figures and many going into 5 figures).

Fortunately, it was just ₹500. Had the fine been higher I would have put more pressure on the authorities. My main problem is with such blatant misuse of power by these traffic cops. And from what I know, Mumbai cops are far, far better than those in some other places. I'd hate to imagine the kind of unfair treatment motorists from other states/cities get.

I agree, doesn't make sense to go to Thane for this. However, one could find out if there's a WebEx link for the court. In my case too, the summons had no such mention and I got to know about it only after a personal visit. Maybe it is here that the traffic 'agents/ lawyers' fill the void. Logical step for the Traffic Court/Dept should be to include the weblink as part of the summons. wonder what's stopping them.

Aha - thank you for this! My summons didn't have a link either, nor did it mention an option to join via WebEx. I hope I'm not put in a position to use this piece of info though...

[GTX+]

I received an SMS today from Delhi police about a speeding challan.

I logged on to the virtual court (the sms had this link, I did not click it but rather opened virtual court site on my laptop) to check details, and this is what I observed.

IIRC, the traffic challan carries the offence and also the vehicle number. However, in this case there is no vehicle number mentioned, only the offence. (I may be wrong on this).

Secondly, there is no evidence in form of any picture(s).

Lastly, the date of challan is 21st Feb and I do not even remember if I had gone via that stretch on that date and at that time (00:39).

Given the above observation, I have contested the challan and got the hearing date as 12th of this month.

Thanks to the immensely helpful information posted by OP, I also visited the Delhi district court website and got the webex link. So I intend to log on to this link on the day of hearing and see how things go.

My request to members is to guide me if there is anything I need to be prepared with for the hearing?

Thanks much in advance.

[handsofsteel]

Originally Posted by GTX+

I received an SMS today from Delhi police about a speeding challan.


My request to members is to guide me if there is anything I need to be prepared with for the hearing?

Thanks much in advance.

You do not need anything. I suggest you ask for the evidence. The hon magistrate will direct the police to do the needful and ask you to log in once you receive the proof.
You’ll have to log in again wait till you are called up. (Approx 3-5 mins depending on the number of hearings). I suggest you see what’s going on with the ones before you, you’ll get a great idea of what’s going on and what to do.

[GTX+]

Thank you @handofsteel.

While the date is mentioned, time or sequence of my hearing is not mentioned.

So what time do I login? 10 AM? Any suggestion on this is highly appreciated ☺️

[handsofsteel]

Originally Posted by GTX+

Thank you @handofsteel.

While the date is mentioned, time or sequence of my hearing is not mentioned.

So what time do I login? 10 AM? Any suggestion on this is highly appreciated ☺️

Log in as convenient. Anytime after 10-1030. They do not follow any order. It’s like an online class with students jostling for the teacher’s attention. Which is why I said whenever you log in, observe the goings on for 5 mins and see what’s the flavour of the day- apologies getting waived off or go full tilt contesting off the judge is in a bad mood fining everyone. In my case, the judge came only in the afternoon, so I logged in at about 1400h.

[GTX+]

Thank you so much for your inputs. Will do as you said.

[handsofsteel]

Originally Posted by GTX+

Thank you so much for your inputs. Will do as you said.

Any updates from your experience/perspective regarding the hearing?


P. S. Just noticed the results of the poll. It’s a telling one about us all😁