LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday expressed its concern over the issuance of e-challan to motorists over traffic violations by the Punjab Safe City Authority (PSCA) without any legal backing.

“How can an owner of a vehicle be punished for a violation committed by its driver?” Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh asked a provincial law officer during the hearing of a petition challenging the PSCA powers to issue e-challans.

Responding to several court queries, the law officer admitted that at present there was no legislation on the e-challan. However, he said the e-challans were being issued on the violation of traffic rules in the light of an order issued by the high court.

Justice Sheikh asked the law officer to explain as to how e-challan could be issued in the light of the court’s order without making legislation to this effect.

The judge referred to the Supreme Court observations on multiple occasions that such actions without being backed by a piece of legislation were illegal.

The law officer endorsed the judge’s observation and said the legislation in question was in progress and would be passed soon. He sought an opportunity to submit a written reply on behalf of the government.

The judge allowed the request and adjourned the hearing till March 21.

The judge also sought the personal appearance of the provincial secretaries for law and transport, besides the PSCA chief operating officer.

Falak Sher, a citizen, had filed the petition pleading that the PSCA could only use its cameras to check the speed of the vehicles plying on roads to use it as evidence for manual challans.

He said the judicial magistrates concerned had the jurisdiction to impose a fine or exonerate a motorist facing a charge after holding a summary trial.

He contended that the traffic police or the PSCA had no power to recover fine for e-challan from the vehicle owners. He pointed out that the authority had been issuing e-challans without a legal cover.

He asked the court to set aside the act of the authority as unlawful and restrain it from recovering the fine amount from the motorists.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2022