How to Check an E-Challan in India: Every Official Way
Last verified: 13 Aug 2026
Which portal shows my challan — parivahan.gov.in or NextGen?
Two national e-challan portals run side by side, and picking the wrong one is a common reason a search comes back empty. The older portal at echallan.parivahan.gov.in carries a notice listing the states whose challans have moved: AN, AR, AS, BR, CH, CG, DD, GA, HP, HR, JH, JK, KA, LA, MH, ML, MN, MZ, NL, PB, PY, SK, TN, UK, WB, RJ and GJ. Those 27 states and UTs must be searched on the NextGen portal at echallan.parivahan.nic.in. Anything not on that list — including Delhi, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh — is still served by the older site.
The list does change. If a search returns nothing on one portal, run the same number on the other before concluding you have no challan.
How do I check traffic challan status, step by step?
On the legacy portal (echallan.parivahan.gov.in/index/accused-challan): choose Challan Number, Vehicle Number or DL Number, type the number with no spaces or dashes, enter the captcha and click Get Detail. That is the entire search. Identity checks — OTP to the mobile registered on Vahan, Aadhaar OTP, or DL number with date of birth — only appear when you go to pay or view full details.
On NextGen (echallan.parivahan.nic.in/challan/challan-services): the services page opens as seven tiles — Check Pending Challan Status, Pay Challan, Download Challan Print, Download Payment Receipt, Check Pending Transaction, Raise Grievance and Check Grievance Status. Click the first one. NextGen asks for more than the old site did: the Vehicle Number tab wants the registration number plus the Registration Date in DD/MM/YYYY, and the DL tab wants the licence number plus date of birth. Both are printed on your RC and licence. If the date does not match the Vahan record exactly, the search returns nothing — which reads like “no challans pending” but is not the same thing. When in doubt, use the Challan Number tab with the number from your SMS or notice, which needs no date at all.
What does the traffic challan list actually show?
The results table gives Violator Name, DL/RC Number, Challan No, Transaction ID, State, Department, Challan Date, Amount, Status and Payment Source, with links for Challan Print and Receipt. Two columns matter more than people expect. Department tells you whether traffic police or the transport department booked it, which decides who you complain to. Status separates a pending challan from a disposed one — a challan you paid at the roadside should already show as settled, and if it does not, that is a receipt problem, not a new fine.
Always open Challan Print before paying. For camera-detected violations it carries the photographic evidence, and that image is what tells you whether the number plate in the picture is actually yours. If it is not, go to disputing a wrong e-challan rather than paying.
Which states have their own e-challan portal?
Where a state runs its own system, it often holds city-police challans that never reach the national portal — or holds older ones the national portal has dropped.
| State | Where to check | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Delhi | Legacy Parivahan portal + Delhi Traffic Police notice page | Notices under Section 133 sit on a separate police page, not in the challan list |
| Maharashtra | mahatrafficechallan.gov.in + NextGen | State portal needs the last 4 digits of the chassis or engine number as well as the vehicle number |
| West Bengal | Sanjog (sanjog.wb.gov.in/payFine) + NextGen | Sanjog is the only search that covers Kolkata Traffic Police, WB Traffic Police and Transport in one place; needs the last 5 chassis characters |
| Karnataka | NextGen + Bengaluru Traffic Police OTP page | The Bengaluru page finds challans by mobile number, so a stale Vahan number hides them |
| Telangana | echallan.tspolice.gov.in/publicview/ | Also shows DL penalty points; the captcha is an arithmetic question |
| Madhya Pradesh | echallan.mponline.gov.in + legacy Parivahan | State portal searches by vehicle number only — no challan-number or DL search |
| Gujarat | NextGen + legacy Gujarat Police portal | The old Gujarat portal now holds only challans dated before 13/06/2023 |
| Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Rajasthan | NextGen | No separate state challan search documented |
Can I check a challan on mParivahan, or by traffic challan message?
mParivahan, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways citizen app, is the official app route — it carries challan history alongside the virtual RC and DL for the same vehicle or licence. It is the only nationally documented app for this.
SMS is a different story. Across every state we track, challan SMS is outbound only: the system sends an alert to the mobile number registered against the vehicle in Vahan. No officially documented number to text for challan enquiry exists in any of the twelve states covered here. Any site claiming an SMS shortcode for challan enquiry is describing something the government does not run.
So keep your Vahan mobile number current. If it is wrong you get no alert, and you may not be able to complete an OTP on NextGen or Virtual Courts either.
Is the traffic challan message I received genuine?
Fake challan SMS is common enough that the government portal warns about it directly: “Please beware of fraudulent websites and mobile apps impersonating our echallan services. … We never request your password, OTP, payment details or sensitive personal information via calls, emails, or messages or links.” Telangana goes further and publishes the sender header its genuine messages come from — ECHALN-* — telling citizens to trust nothing else.
The safe habit is simple: never tap the link in a challan SMS. Open the portal yourself and type your vehicle number in. A real challan will be there. And no official process ever asks you to install an APK file to view or pay a challan.
What if the challan is not on the portal at all?
It may have been forwarded to court. Virtual Courts at vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt currently lists 31 traffic and transport departments. Pick your department, then search by mobile number, CNR number, party name or challan/vehicle number. The documented flow is: search case, click View, verify by OTP — or, if the mobile number on the challan is wrong, by the vehicle’s engine and chassis number checked against RTO data — then either pay the fine through the ePay gateway or select “I wish to contest the case”, after which the acknowledgement names the court and date assigned.
Coverage is uneven. Delhi appears twice (Traffic Department and Notice Department) and picking the wrong one finds nothing. Maharashtra has only Transport and Nashik Traffic, so Mumbai or Pune court challans mean a real court date. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are not on the platform at all.
Some offences never become payable online anywhere. Drunken driving under Section 185 and most limbs of dangerous driving under Section 184 are not compoundable, so no portal will show an amount — see court challan vs on-spot challan for what that means in practice.
What is the traffic challan helpline number?
The national e-challan helpdesk is 0120-4925505, listed on the portal as 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM, with email helpdesk-echallan@gov.in. NextGen pages print wider hours (6:00 AM to midnight) for the same number. For a technical fault — payment debited, challan still open — use Check Pending Transaction or the grievance ticket system at echallan.parivahan.gov.in/gsticket/ before paying again. State helplines are separate: Delhi traffic 1095, Kolkata Traffic Police 1073, Gujarat traffic 1800 233 1122, Tamil Nadu traffic violations 103.
What next, once you have found it?
Check the amount against the fines list or the challan calculator — states notify their own compounding amounts under Section 200, so the payable figure often differs from the central Act. Then either pay it online, dispute it, or wait for a Lok Adalat: the 2026 National Lok Adalats fall on 14 March, 9 May, 12 September and 12 December, and only compoundable matters can be settled there. Leaving it alone is the one option with no upside — see what happens to unpaid challans.
Frequently asked questions
Can I check challans against my driving licence instead of my vehicle number?
Yes. Both national portals have a DL Number search alongside Challan Number and Vehicle Number. On the older echallan.parivahan.gov.in the licence number alone is enough; on the NextGen portal the DL tab also asks for your date of birth in DD/MM/YYYY. Some state portals do the same — Telangana's public view portal carries a separate Licence No search box on its first tab. A DL search shows challans booked against you as the driver, which is not always the same set as challans booked against a vehicle you own.
How long does an e-challan take to appear online after the violation?
There is no single national timeline, and most states do not publish one. Delhi is the exception that does: its published instructions for red light and overspeed violation detection cameras say red light notices and challans go to the Virtual Court within 15 days and are compounded there, while overspeed, stop-line and wrong-side notices stay payable on the Delhi Traffic Police website for 60 days before also moving to the Virtual Court. Elsewhere, treat the SMS alert as your trigger to search rather than waiting a fixed number of days.
I paid but the challan still shows as pending — what should I do?
Do not pay it a second time. On the NextGen portal use the Check Pending Transaction tile; on the older portal use the payment verification page, which lists transactions as Pending, Failed or Success. State portals have their own equivalents — Telangana's tells you to wait a day and says an uncleared amount is refunded within 7 working days. If it is still wrong after that, raise a ticket at echallan.parivahan.gov.in/gsticket/ or call the e-challan helpdesk on 0120-4925505.
Why is the amount on my challan different from the fine I read about?
Because states notify their own compounding amounts under Section 200 of the Motor Vehicles Act, and those often sit well below the central figure. Karnataka compounds a helmet offence at ₹500 against the ₹1,000 in the central Act; Maharashtra's notified seat-belt amount is ₹200 while its own police schedule prints the ₹1,000 statutory fine. The number printed on your challan is the payable one. Check the state page and the fines section for what your state has actually notified.
Can the same challan show up on both the e-challan portal and Virtual Courts?
Yes, and it is a real risk of paying twice. For a challan forwarded to court, the national portal displays a disclaimer saying the challan has gone to Virtual Court but can still be paid there, and asks you to tick a box to proceed. Nothing stops you paying the same challan in both places, so pick one route and keep the receipt. If you have already paid on vcourts.gov.in, do not pay again on the e-challan portal.
Sources
- echallan.parivahan.gov.in — https://echallan.parivahan.gov.in/index/accused-challan
- echallan.parivahan.gov.in — https://echallan.parivahan.gov.in/payment-verification
- echallan.parivahan.gov.in — https://echallan.parivahan.gov.in/index/grievance
- echallan.parivahan.nic.in — https://echallan.parivahan.nic.in/challan/challan-services
- vcourts.gov.in — https://vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt/
- vcourts.gov.in — https://vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt/help.php
- nalsa.gov.in — https://nalsa.gov.in/lok-adalats/
- himachalpradesh.nalsa.gov.in — https://himachalpradesh.nalsa.gov.in/lok-adalat/
- andhrapradesh.nalsa.gov.in — https://andhrapradesh.nalsa.gov.in/lok-adalat/
- nalsa.gov.in — https://nalsa.gov.in/national-lok-adalat/
TrafficChallan.com is an independent information website, not affiliated with any government body. Challan payments happen only on official government portals we link to.