Agartala, June 5: Traffic rules violators need not come to the court after being accused by the law enforcement agencies.
The offenders can deposit their fine online and also need not engage any lawyers, thanks to the “Virtual Court” introduced by the Supreme Court.
A senior official of the Tripura High Court said that the ‘Digital Challans’ generated through the eChallan application will be sent in digital form to the designated “Virtual Court” and all the challans for the given day would reflect in the dashboard of the “Virtual Court”.
“The Virtual Court, as per section 208 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 will issue summons to the traffic violator via SMS notification in the registered mobile number of the violator.
“The SMS notification will contain a web link by clicking on which the violator will be redirected to the Virtual Court Web Portal. Thereafter, the violator has to make online payment of the stipulated fine through debit card, credit card, internet banking, eWallet, UPI,” the official told IANS.
However, if the violators choose to challenge the offence or the fine fixed by the authority, they may opt to contest the challan as per the law and then come to the court physically or through a lawyer to fight the case.
According to the official, the fine amount paid by the violator would be deposited directly in the e-Treasury as “Government Receipt” through the eGRAS portal of the Finance Department and then the violator would receive an acknowledgement indicating that the case registered has been disposed off.
Citizens can access the portal on https://vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt/.
The violator can view the status of the case online through various channels created for service delivery.
The official said that so far 15 states in the country including three northeastern states – Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura – have introduced the “Virtual Court” for online settlement of traffic rules violations and disputes.
According to the Tripura High Court’s Registrar General Data Mohan Jamatia, the Virtual Court, introduced by the e-committee of the Supreme Court a few years back, is a concept aimed at eliminating the presence of the litigants or lawyers in the court and adjudication of the case online.
“The concept has been evolved in order to efficiently utilise Court resources and to provide the litigants with an effective avenue to settle petty disputes. Virtual Court is administered by a Judge over a virtual electronic platform whose jurisdiction may extend to the entire State and function 24×7.
“Neither the litigant nor the Judge would have to physically visit a Court for effective adjudication and resolution. The Virtual Court is meant for disposal of petty traffic challans where there is pro-active admission of guilt by the traffic violator on receipt of the summons in electronic form,” Jamatia said.
The Virtual Court Web Portal was developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Transport Department officials said that if the traffic rules violations are significantly checked, road accidents would also be drastically reduced.
According to an official report, India accounts for 11 per cent of the global deaths in road accidents, the highest in the world.
The country accounts for about 4.5 lakh road accidents per annum, in which about 1.5 lakh people die.
