mParivahan Challan: Check, Pay or Contest (2026 New Rules)

A traffic challan used to be easy to forget about. It sat on the portal until a court summons arrived, or until you tried to sell your car and found the RTO wouldn’t process the transfer. That is no longer the case. In 2026 the amended Central Motor Vehicles Rules gave every challan a fixed timeline. Missing that timeline now has consequences on its own, before any court gets involved.

This guide explains how mParivahan challans work under the new system:

• the deadlines that now apply to every challan
• the rule that can suspend your licence for repeated offences
• what common offences cost
• when contesting a challan is worth it
• how to avoid the fake-challan scams that copy Parivahan

Quick answer: Check pending challans in the NextGen mParivahan app or at echallan.parivahan.gov.in using your vehicle number, DL number or challan number. Under the 2026 rules you have 45 days from issue to pay or contest online. If you do nothing, the challan is treated as accepted. Unpaid challans can then block your RC and licence services.

What Changed in 2026: The New Challan Timeline

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways amended the Central Motor Vehicles Rules in 2026 to standardise how challans are served, disputed and enforced. Here is how the timeline now works.

In practice: silence is no longer neutral. Under the old system, an ignored challan simply waited to be sent to court. Now, if you ignore it for 45 days, you have accepted it. You lose the chance to contest it before an officer, and you have to pay half the fine before you can challenge it in court.

Rollout differs by state. Haryana has launched its next-gen e-challan system on this model, with designated grievance officers in each district. Delhi notified its grievance mechanism in September 2026 but put it on hold days later after district bar associations objected to moving adjudication from magistrates to executive officers. Check how your state handles contests before assuming the process applies there exactly as described.

The Five-Offence Rule and Your Driving Licence

A second amendment adds a condition under Rule 21, which governs licence suspension. Offences recorded from 1 January 2026 count toward it. A driver who commits five or more traffic offences in a calendar year can face licence suspension or disqualification.

Three things to understand about this rule:

1. It is based on how often you offend, not how serious the offences are. Five minor offences can trigger it as easily as five serious ones.
2. Each year starts fresh. Offences from an earlier year don’t carry over into a new one.
3. Some offences can already cost you your licence on their own. Drunk driving, dangerous driving, overspeeding and riding without a helmet can each lead to suspension even as a single offence.

This is why checking challans regularly now matters for your licence, not only your wallet. If you only find out about four challans when the fifth arrives, it’s too late to do anything about the first four.

How to Check Challans in mParivahan

The NextGen mParivahan app lets you search challans by vehicle number or DL number. If you’ve added your vehicle as a Virtual RC, keep the app’s notifications switched on. The alert for a new challan is the earliest warning you’ll get, and under the 45-day rule, early warning is what gives you time to act.

For payment, downloading receipts and filing a contest, use the official e-Challan portal. The full step-by-step process for checking, paying and saving receipts is in our mParivahan homepage guide.

If a challan isn’t showing on Parivahan: some states and cities run their own challan systems alongside it. Telangana, for example, uses the Telangana Police e-challan portal. If you received a notice that Parivahan doesn’t show, check your state traffic police website before assuming the notice is fake.

How Much Is the Fine? Common Offences

These are the central penalties under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019. States can set their own compounding amounts within these limits, so the amount on your challan is the one that applies to you.

Repeat offences carry higher amounts. For drunk driving, a repeat offence within three years can bring up to ₹15,000 and/or two years’ imprisonment.

Pay or Contest? A Practical Way to Decide

Contesting takes effort, and under the new rules there is a cost if you lose and want to go further. Here is a simple way to decide.

Contest when you have evidence the challan is wrong:

• The photo shows a different vehicle. If the make, model or colour in the evidence photo doesn’t match yours, the camera probably misread the plate, or your number has been cloned.
• You had already sold the vehicle. A dated sale agreement or delivery note, plus your Form 29 filing, shows you weren’t the owner on the offence date.
• The same offence was charged twice. Duplicate challans for one incident do happen.
• The vehicle was somewhere else. A FASTag toll record, a fuel receipt or GPS history placing the vehicle elsewhere at that time is strong evidence.
• The vehicle was stolen. An FIR filed before the offence date settles it.

Pay when the evidence photo clearly shows your vehicle committing the offence. Contesting a valid challan only uses up time, and after 45 days you lose the right to contest anyway. If your objection is rejected, taking it to court requires depositing 50% of the fine first, so contest only when your evidence is solid.

When you contest: upload clear evidence, not just a written explanation. Note your grievance reference number. Keep checking the status, because a grievance that isn’t decided within the state’s time limit may also be treated as accepted.

Challans on a Vehicle You Sold or Lent

Camera challans are sent to whoever is the registered owner in Vahan, not the person who was driving.

If you sold the vehicle but the RC transfer isn’t complete, every challan the buyer earns will still come to you. To protect yourself:

• File Form 29 on the day of sale.
• Keep a signed delivery note that records the date and time of handover.
• Follow up until the RC shows the new owner.

If challans arrive after the sale date, contest them with these documents. Don’t simply pay them, because each one also counts toward your offence record.

If you lent the vehicle to someone, the notice still comes to you as the owner. Sort out payment with the driver, but check the date carefully. Under the five-offence rule, what matters is whose record the offence ends up on.

Fake Challan Messages: How to Spot Them

In July 2026, the government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) warned about fake e-challan messages spreading on SMS and WhatsApp. These messages include links, PDFs and APK files that look like they come from an RTO or traffic police. Installing the APK can give scammers access to your SMS messages and OTPs, which they then use to drain bank and UPI accounts.

Warning signs of a fake challan message:

• It asks you to install an app or open an APK file. Genuine challans never require this.
• The link goes to any domain other than parivahan.gov.in, even one that looks almost the same.
• It pressures you to pay right away, with threats like “pay in 2 hours or your licence will be cancelled.”
• It arrives on WhatsApp from a personal number.

The safe habit: never pay through a link in a message. Open the mParivahan app, or type echallan.parivahan.gov.in into your browser yourself, and search your vehicle number. If the challan isn’t listed there (or on your state’s official portal), it isn’t real.

If you already tapped a link or installed an APK:

1. Switch on airplane mode.
2. Uninstall the app.
3. Call your bank to block your cards and UPI.
4. Report it on the national cybercrime helpline 1930 or at cybercrime.gov.in.

Old Pending Challans: The Lok Adalat Route

If you have old challans that are already pending in court, National Lok Adalat sessions are a quicker way to settle them than a regular hearing. These sessions are held several times a year, and Delhi held them in February and March 2026, for example.

Compoundable traffic offences can often be settled there for less than the full fine. Serious matters such as drunk driving or accident cases are generally excluded. Your state legal services authority announces the dates, and some states require you to book a token online in advance.

Paid but Still Showing Pending?

UPI payments usually update within minutes, while card and net-banking payments can take up to a day. If the challan still shows as unpaid after 48 hours:

1. Keep your payment receipt PDF safe.
2. Raise a grievance on the e-Challan portal, attaching the receipt.
3. If it’s still not fixed, email helpdesk-echallan@gov.in with the challan number and transaction ID.

Don’t pay the same challan a second time to clear the status. Getting a duplicate payment refunded is much slower than getting the status corrected.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I pay a challan after the 45 days have passed?
Yes. After 45 days the challan is treated as accepted and still has to be paid. What you lose is the right to contest it before a grievance officer, and your RC and licence services can be blocked until you pay.

Do five challans automatically suspend my licence?
Not automatically. Five or more offences in a calendar year, counted from 1 January 2026, make you liable to suspension. The licensing authority takes the decision.

Does an unpaid challan stop me from selling my vehicle?
Yes. RTOs block ownership transfer while challans are pending, and the vehicle may be marked “Not to be Transacted.”

I got a challan SMS but nothing shows on Parivahan. Is it fake?
Check your state traffic police portal first, since a few states use their own systems. If it isn’t on either, treat it as a scam and don’t open the link.

Does a challan go on my record even if someone else was driving?
Camera challans go to the registered owner. If someone else was driving, settle it with them or contest it with evidence, because an uncontested challan stays on the owner’s record.