Patna: The Patna high court has asked the state govt to issue a notification enabling a smoother and more “pocket friendly” mechanism for the settlement of road traffic fines and offences in Bihar.Under the proposed mechanism, authorities would be empowered to settle traffic offences in bulk by reducing the amount of fines.Section 200 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 empowers the state govt to issue such a notification.A division bench comprising chief justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo and justice Alok Kumar Sinha passed the order while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Rani Tiwari.The court directed the state govt to take immediate steps to issue the notification.The order was passed on March 11 and came into the public domain on Friday after being uploaded on the high court website.The petitioner’s counsel Vikas Kumar Pankaj informed the court that a mechanism for bulk settlement of traffic fines at reduced amounts already exists in states such as Gujarat, Odisha and Delhi, where traffic challans are settled by reducing the penalty to one-fourth of the original amount.He further informed the court that no such mechanism is currently available in Bihar.During the hearing, the member secretary of the Bihar State Legal Services Authority (BSLSA) informed the court that efforts had been made to include pending road traffic challan cases in the upcoming National Lok Adalat to be held on Saturday, March 14, in district courts across Bihar as well as in the Patna high court.The judges directed the member secretary to coordinate with the state’s transport department to spread public awareness about the settlement of traffic fines through the upcoming Lok Adalats.The matter will be heard again on April 20.
