There is a quiet, well-intentioned clean-up happening across Indian traffic enforcement, and most used car buyers have not connected it to the car they are about to buy.
State after state has opened a route for owners to settle pending traffic challans at a heavily reduced amount. The National Legal Services Authority runs four National Lok Adalats a year, on the second Saturday of March, May, September and December, and the next one falls on 12 September 2026. Alongside that permanent calendar, individual states have announced their own one-time settlement windows. Bihar launched one effective 9 May 2026. Delhi's Cabinet approved an amnesty on 12 November 2025. Odisha has also launched a one-time settlement scheme for pending challans routed through the National Lok Adalat.
None of this is a loophole. These are legitimate backlog-clearing measures, and for an owner sitting on a stack of old notices they never received, they are a genuine relief. The reason a used car buyer needs to pay attention is much simpler and much less dramatic: a challan record shows you the position on the day you look at it. If you look the week after a settlement, the record is clean and correct and it tells you almost nothing about how that car was driven for the last five years.
What a Lok Adalat Settlement Actually Is
A Lok Adalat is a formal, statutory forum for settling disputes by mutual agreement rather than by contested litigation. Traffic challans are one of the largest categories it handles, for the obvious reason that a single notice worth a few hundred rupees is not worth a court's calendar time, and there are a great many of them.
The mechanics matter, because they shape what a buyer will and will not see on a record afterwards. Registration through the legal services authority route is required, so an owner has to actively opt in. There is no court fee. And the decision reached is final and binding on both sides, which is precisely why the resulting record entry is clean and settled rather than provisional.
Reductions typically land somewhere between 30 and 70 percent of the compoundable challan amount, and some reporting cites waivers running up to 75 percent. The exact level varies by state, because each state government decides the terms of its own scheme and the discount it is willing to offer.
Eligibility is not unlimited, and this is the part most worth understanding as a buyer. The schemes cover minor, compoundable violations: overspeeding, signal jumping, parking offences and the like. They do not cover drunk driving, hit-and-run, or accident cases involving injury. Those stay exactly where they are, in the criminal justice system, and no amnesty removes them.
A very large share of pending challans in India are old, small in value, and were never properly served on the owner in the first place. Chasing them individually through the courts costs more than the challans are worth and clogs the system for everyone. A settlement window converts that dead weight into recovered revenue and a cleaner record, and it lets an owner who genuinely did not know about a notice from four years ago close it without a court appearance. Nobody should read an amnesty as a sign that something is wrong.
The State Schemes on the Table Right Now
The picture in 2026 is a mix of the permanent national calendar and individual state windows announced on their own timelines. Here is what has been announced, using only what is on the public record.
| State / route | Scheme | Waiver level | Key exclusions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National (all states) | National Lok Adalat, four sittings a year | Typically 30-70%, some reporting cites up to 75%; varies by state | Drunk driving, hit-and-run, accident cases involving injury | Permanent calendar; next sitting 12 September 2026 |
| Bihar | One-time traffic challan settlement scheme | Settlement terms set by the state scheme | Handheld mobile phone use while driving; dangerous driving under Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 | Effective 9 May 2026, the date of that National Lok Adalat |
| Delhi | Cabinet-approved amnesty for compoundable challans | Up to 80% on compoundable challans issued in the last 10 years | Non-compoundable offences remain outside the scheme | Approved by Cabinet on 12 November 2025 |
| Odisha | One-time settlement for pending traffic challans | Routed through the National Lok Adalat | Follows the Lok Adalat eligibility framework | Launched; confirm current terms with the state portal |
Two details on Bihar are worth spelling out because they are easy to misread. The scheme applies to e-challans pending more than 90 days, and it covers violations such as not wearing a helmet, not wearing a seat belt, and driving without insurance. Excluded are using a handheld mobile phone while driving and dangerous driving under Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988. Reporting on the cut-off date has differed, with some accounts citing 31 March 2025 and others 31 March 2026, so anyone in Patna or elsewhere in the state planning to use the scheme should confirm the applicable cut-off with the official state portal rather than rely on a news summary.
Delhi's rationale, as cited when the scheme was approved, is instructive for buyers too: procedural delays, non-service of notices, and pending court appeals. In other words, a large share of the backlog exists because the notice never reached the owner, not because the owner refused to pay. That is exactly why a long challan list on a car is a conversation starter and not an accusation.
The Four Dates That Reset the Record Every Year
Because the National Lok Adalat calendar is fixed, the timing of a used car transaction can sit either side of a settlement window without anyone planning it that way. Knowing the dates is useful for a buyer and essential for a seller.
| Sitting | Scheduling rule | 2026 date | Position now |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | Second Saturday of March | 14 March 2026 | Held |
| Second | Second Saturday of May | 9 May 2026 | Held; the date Bihar's scheme took effect |
| Third | Second Saturday of September | 12 September 2026 | Next sitting |
| Fourth | Second Saturday of December | 12 December 2026 | Final sitting of the year |
Dates are set by the legal services authorities and are worth confirming against the official calendar before you plan around them, but the rhythm is consistent: four windows a year, roughly one a quarter, with the September sitting the next opportunity.
Why the Date You Check Matters More Than the Amount
Here is the point of this whole article, and it is a point about timing rather than about suspicion.
Suppose you are looking at a well-kept hatchback in September. The seller has been meaning to sort out an old set of notices for two years and finally does it through the September sitting. Entirely proper, entirely legitimate, and frankly the responsible thing to do before selling. You run a challan check in early October, see a zero outstanding balance, and conclude the car has a clean history.
What you have actually established is that the car has no outstanding dues today. That is genuinely useful and it is not nothing. But it is a different fact from the one you were trying to establish, which was how this car has been driven. Twelve overspeeding notices settled in a single sitting and zero notices ever issued produce the same outstanding figure after settlement: zero.
Run the same check three weeks earlier, while you are still negotiating, and you see the twelve notices. Nothing about that makes the seller dishonest. It simply gives you information you can act on: about the kind of driving the car has done, about brake and tyre wear you should look at harder, and about a dues position that has to be resolved before the paperwork can move.
Read the Pattern, Not Just the Rupee Figure
Most buyers who do check challans look at one number and stop: what is outstanding. That is the least informative part of the record. Three things tell you more.
- Violation type. Two parking challans in a crowded market area say something very different from repeated overspeeding notices. One is a parking problem. The other is a driving-style signal that should make you look harder at brake pads, tyre edges and suspension bushes on a car that may have been driven hard.
- Frequency and clustering. Four notices spread over six years is background noise for any car used daily in an Indian city. Four notices in three months is a pattern, and it usually corresponds to a period of heavy or commercial-style use.
- Location spread. Challans issued across several states on a car advertised as a single-city family runabout is a mismatch worth asking about. It may have a perfectly ordinary explanation. Ask anyway.
None of these are red flags on their own. They are questions, and a straightforward seller will have straightforward answers. The buyers who get into trouble are not the ones who found something worrying in the record. They are the ones who never looked, or who looked at the wrong moment and mistook a settled slate for an empty history.
Check the challan record while you are still negotiating, not after. A challan check is Rs. 49, an RC check is Rs. 49, and both together are Rs. 79 instead of Rs. 98 separately.
Run a Vahan Verify CheckThe Form 28 Problem: Where Unpaid Challans Cost You Real Money
Beyond what the record tells you about driving history, there is a hard financial consequence that catches buyers every month.
As of 2026, every Form 28 application for a transfer NOC triggers an automated lookup against the e-challan records before it is processed. The RTO will not issue Form 28 approval if there are unpaid e-challans, court-pending challans, or FASTag dues against the registration number. The check is automated and runs before the file reaches an officer, so there is no routine route around it.
Translate that into a transaction. You have paid the seller. The keys are in your hand and the car is parked outside your building. The transfer application goes in and comes back blocked because of dues you did not know existed. Until they are cleared, the car stays registered in the seller's name while you drive it. That is an uncomfortable position for anyone: the registered owner carries obligations for a vehicle they no longer control, and the buyer has paid full price for a car whose paperwork has not moved.
Court-pending challans are the worst version of this, because they cannot simply be paid online at a counter. They have to work through a process, and that process runs on a court's calendar rather than on yours. This is exactly the gap a settlement window is designed to close, which is why a seller heading into a Lok Adalat sitting before listing their car is doing the right thing by everyone. Our earlier coverage of how unpaid challans freeze an RC transfer and of the court-pending challans a buyer can inherit goes through the mechanics in more detail, and FASTag dues stall a Form 28 the same way.
Agree the price, then check the record, then agree in writing who clears any outstanding dues and by when, and only then transfer the balance of the money. A seller who intends to use a settlement window should say so, and the timing can simply be written into the agreement. The problem is never that dues exist. The problem is discovering them after payment, when your only remaining leverage is a phone number the seller may stop answering.
What This Means for Used Car Buyers
Put the amnesty calendar and the Form 28 rule together and the practical guidance is short.
Check early, not late. The single most valuable moment to look at a challan record is while you are still deciding whether to buy and what to offer. Once a settlement has gone through, the record is accurate and clean and tells you far less. This is not a reason to distrust a seller who has settled. It is a reason to look before that point, so you learn what the record has to teach.
Read type and frequency, not just the total. A car with a long history of overspeeding notices is a car to inspect more carefully mechanically, whatever its current dues position. That inference survives a settlement. The rupee figure does not.
Confirm the dues position before you pay. The Form 28 lookup is automated. If dues exist, your transfer stops, and no amount of goodwill between you and the seller changes that. Establish the position first and write the responsibility for clearing it into your agreement.
Check the state, not just the car. Schemes differ by state, and so do exclusions and cut-off dates. A car registered in one state and driven in another may have notices from both. Reported terms also change, as the differing accounts of Bihar's cut-off show, so confirm current details with the relevant official state portal before you plan around a scheme.
A challan check on VahanBazaar is Rs. 49, an RC check is Rs. 49, and both together are Rs. 79 instead of Rs. 98 separately. It pulls the vehicle's record from the VAHAN database, covering owner count, registration status, insurance validity, blacklist and challan flags and vehicle age, before money changes hands. If you are weighing which of the two you actually need, our explainer on which Vahan Verify check suits which situation lays it out, and there is a practical walk-through of how to check pending challans or a loan on a car as well.
City matters here too, because enforcement density and scheme activity vary widely. A buyer shortlisting used cars in Delhi is looking at a market where an 80 percent amnesty has been approved on a decade of compoundable challans. A buyer in Patna is dealing with a state scheme with its own exclusions and a cut-off that has been reported inconsistently. A buyer in Bengaluru is in a city with extensive camera-based enforcement. The check is the same Rs. 49 everywhere; what it turns up will not be.
What This Means for Used Car Sellers
The same facts read very differently from the seller's side of the table, and the honest advice is the opposite of what a cynic would expect.
If you have pending challans, use the settlement window. It is cheaper, it is final and binding, and it removes the single most common reason a used car transaction stalls at the Form 28 stage. Going into a sale with a clear dues position means the buyer's transfer goes through without drama and you stop being the registered owner of a car you no longer have.
Then be upfront about it. Telling a buyer "there were old notices, I settled them at the September sitting, here is the position now" costs you nothing and buys you credibility that no document can. A buyer who hears that from you is a buyer who is not wondering what else the record might have shown last month. Serious buyers are checking the record anyway, and the seller who volunteers the story before the buyer discovers it is always in the stronger position. Our note on clearing challans in Delhi before you sell covers the sequencing for sellers in that market.
Check the Record While You Still Have Leverage
Once a settlement goes through, the record is clean and correct and tells you far less about the car. A challan check on VahanBazaar is Rs. 49, an RC check is Rs. 49, and both together are Rs. 79 instead of Rs. 98 separately. Owner count, registration status, insurance validity, blacklist and challan flags and vehicle age, pulled from the VAHAN database before money changes hands.
Check This Car — Rs. 49Frequently Asked Questions
The National Legal Services Authority organises four National Lok Adalats every year, held on the second Saturday of March, May, September and December. The next one falls on 12 September 2026, with the final sitting of the year on the second Saturday of December. Registration through the legal services authority route is required, no court fee applies, and the settlement reached is final and binding on both sides.
Lok Adalat settlements typically reduce compoundable challans by 30 to 70 percent, and some reporting cites waivers of up to 75 percent. The level varies by state, because each state decides the terms of its own settlement scheme. Delhi's Cabinet approved an amnesty on 12 November 2025 offering waivers of up to 80 percent on compoundable challans issued in the last 10 years. Minor violations such as overspeeding, signal jumping and parking offences are eligible; drunk driving, hit-and-run and accident cases involving injury are not.
Yes. As of 2026, every Form 28 transfer NOC application triggers an automated lookup against the e-challan records before it is processed. The RTO will not issue Form 28 approval if there are unpaid e-challans, court-pending challans or FASTag dues against the registration number. For a buyer that means the deal can be paid for and the keys handed over while the car stays registered in the seller's name until the dues are cleared.
Before. An amnesty or Lok Adalat settlement is a legitimate way for an owner to close a genuine backlog, but once it is done the record shows a clean slate and tells you nothing about how the car was actually driven. Run the challan check while you are still negotiating, not after the seller has been through a settlement, so you can see violation type and frequency and not just the outstanding rupee figure.
A challan check on VahanBazaar is Rs. 49 and an RC check is Rs. 49, with both together at Rs. 79 instead of Rs. 98 separately. The check pulls the vehicle's record from the VAHAN database, covering owner count, registration status, insurance validity, blacklist and challan flags and vehicle age, so you can see the position before money changes hands.