Tripura got its first virtual court for traffic e-challan cases to eliminate the necessity for litigants to appear in court for paying fines.
The Chief Justice of Tripura High Court Justice Indrajit Mahanty launched the virtual court on Wednesday in presence of HC Justice S Talapatra, Justice T Amarnath Goud, Justice Arindam Lodh, Justice SG Chattopadhyay and senior state government officials.
The Virtual Court Web Portal has been developed by the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India. This project has been launched on a pilot basis in the jurisdiction of SP, West Tripura to facilitate online payment of fines arising out of traffic violations. The High Court of Tripura has designated the Court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Court No.1, Agartala, West Tripura as the ‘Virtual Court’.
The Virtual Court is a concept aimed at eliminating the presence of litigant and lawyer in the court and for adjudication of cases on a virtual platform. The concept has been evolved 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 24X7.
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 will reflect in the dashboard of the Virtual Court Judge. The Court, as per Section 208 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 will issue summons to the traffic violator via SMS notification which will contain a web link to redirect the violator to the Virtual Court Web portal whereon the violator could make payment through Debit/ Credit card, Internet banking, eWallet, UPI etc. or may opt to contest the challan as per law. The fine amount will be deposited in the e-Treasury through the eGRAS portal of the finance department. On this the violator will receive an acknowledgement indicting that the case registered is disposed. Citizens can access the portal on https://vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt/ .
“Whoever we are or working in whatever category – judges, registry, and police officials – all come under the umbrella of the Constitution. Everything we do or don’t do is in the service of our country’s people,” Justice Mahanty asserted.
He said, “I complimented Justice Talapatra for his tremendous work in building various judicial facilities under the guidance of the Supreme Court’s e-court committee.” He added that Tripura is one of the leading states in the country when it comes to offering amenities to litigants.
Justice Talapatra in the function urged the state government to make every effort to promote the virtual court for e-challan cases.
Anyone who violates traffic laws will be issued a challan. It will be electronically registered with the virtual court. If the violators wish to pay a fine, they can do so through any online payment method,” – informed the Deputy Registrar of High Court – Shubadip Saha.
The Virtual Court launching programme was also attended by the registrar general Datamohan Jamatia, advocate general Siddhartha Shankar De, DGP VS Yadav, principal secretary L. Darlong, director of ICA Ratan Biswas and other top officials.
Speaking at the event, Justice Mohanty said, the day as ‘another red letter day’, which eliminates the necessity for litigants to appear in court for paying fines.
