The Supreme Court on Thursday directed states and Union territories (UTs) to freeze online and other vehicle-related services, including renewal of registration, issuance of fitness and pollution-under-control certificates (PUC), ownership transfers and even renewal of driving licences, where traffic fines remain unpaid, as part of a nationwide push to make electronic enforcement of road-safety laws more effective.
For multiple violations, the court held, driving license shall be suspended from renewal and measures shall also be taken to suspend the driving license which may be in force. The directions concerned pedestrian safety on Mathura Road near the Delhi High Court and the National Zoological Park, including functional pedestrian signals, synchronised red lights, speed-limiting measures and electronic enforcement. On overloading, the court directed authorities to ensure that the suggestions placed before it are acted upon, including preventing an overloaded transport vehicle from proceeding beyond the point of detection until the excess load is removed. The court directed that a report be filed on further steps taken and stressed adherence to the timelines for implementation of the policy.
The court was informed that about ₹ 49,194.05 crore was outstanding against e-challans issued over a period of time, of which ₹ 26,175.05 crore was recovered so far. The court further directed all states and UTs to forthwith implement the Standard Operating Procedure prepared by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on October 28, 2025, and comply with Section 136A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, read with Rule 167A of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules.
The bench said that merely issuing thousands or lakhs of e-challans served little purpose unless authorities were able to recover the fines. “What is most important is that no center should be permitted to issue PUC certificate,” the order added. The BMC told the court that it was preparing a geospatially mapped digital inventory of existing and missing footpaths and integrating the exercise with its GIS platform and 3D city model.
The court directed the Delhi chief secretary to file a compliance report and warned that if the directions were not complied with, the chief secretary would have to personally appear before the bench on the next date.
