Last updated: October 2026
Under the current central procedure, you have 45 days from the date a challan is issued to pay it or contest it on the Parivahan e-challan portal. If you do neither, the challan is treated as accepted and you get 30 more days to pay. That timeline comes from Rule 167 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, rewritten with effect from 21 January 2026. Many Kerala challans and older guides still describe the earlier practice of about 60 days to pay before a case is forwarded to a virtual court, and I could not find a Kerala notification adopting the new central timeline when I researched this in October 2026. The practical rule is simple: work to the shortest window, and treat the dates shown against your own challan on the portal as final. A challan never expires just because you ignore it.
| Stage | What it means |
|---|---|
| Day 0: challan issued | The offence is recorded by a camera, an officer device, or a patrol, and a challan is generated against the vehicle. For camera-detected offences, central rules expect the electronic notice to be sent within 15 days of the offence, to the mobile number registered against the vehicle. |
| Days 1 to 45 | Your window to act. Either pay the amount on the portal, or contest the challan there with documentary evidence. |
| After 45 days, no action taken | The challan is treated as accepted. Silence counts as acceptance under the amended rule. |
| Next 30 days | The final window to pay an accepted challan on the portal. |
| Still unpaid after that | Licence and registration applications linked to the offender or vehicle are not processed, except tax matters. The vehicle can be flagged as Not to be Transacted on the portal, and unpaid cases can move to a virtual court. |
The important change in the 2026 rewrite is that the clock is now staged and written down. Earlier, the deadline lived in portal practice and state habit, which is why websites quote different numbers.
Before the rewrite, the widely reported practice was that a challan stayed payable on the e-challan portal for about 60 days from issue, after which it could be forwarded to a virtual court. Some insurer guides quote 90 days for the court forwarding instead. Both numbers still appear in Kerala advice pages today, and our own guide to checking AI camera fines in Kerala records the 60-day practice because that is what Kerala challans have commonly shown. None of this makes the older numbers safe to rely on now. Use 45 days as your working deadline, and if your challan record on the portal shows a specific last date, that date governs your case.
Do not wait for an SMS to start this. Camera challans go to the mobile number registered against the vehicle, and an outdated number means the notice never reaches you while the clock keeps running. A monthly check by vehicle number takes a minute. Our e-challan payment page summarises the same check and pay flow in brief.
Missing the window does not cancel your licence on the spot, and social media posts claiming instant cancellation overstate it. The consequences are staged. First, the challan is treated as accepted and the extra 30 days run. If it is still unpaid after that, the registering and licensing authorities stop processing applications linked to you or the vehicle, other than tax matters, and the vehicle can carry a Not to be Transacted flag, which blocks transactions such as ownership transfer until the dues are cleared. Subject to court orders, an authorised officer may also detain the vehicle. Separately, a case that stays unpaid can be forwarded to a virtual court, where the court, not the portal, decides the amount payable.
One related rule is often mixed up with the payment clock. A separate 2026 change lets a licensing authority act against a person recorded with five or more offences in a single year, counted from 1 January 2026. That is a repeat-offender provision, not the deadline for paying any single challan. The amounts themselves are in our Kerala traffic fine list.
If the portal does not offer online disposal for your case, follow the court directions shown on the case page instead. If a payment you already made does not reflect, use the Check Pending Transaction option on the e-challan portal before paying again.
Contesting is not an afterthought; it is one of the two things the 45-day window is for. File the contest on the portal with evidence, before the authority the state has specified for disputes. Common winnable cases are a misread number plate, a vehicle already sold, or an offence recorded at a place and time the vehicle was elsewhere. Attach what proves it: the RC, the challan photo, toll records, or location history. Under the amended rule, the authority is expected to decide within 30 days, and a challan the authority does not resolve in that period ceases to have effect. If your contest is rejected, you can pay within 30 days of that order, or take the matter to court after depositing 50 percent of the challan amount. If you intend to contest, file the contest rather than paying first, because the portal treats paying and contesting as alternative ways to close the same window.
A challan does not lapse with time. The 45-day and 30-day periods are windows for paying or contesting on the portal, not an expiry date. After they close, the same dues follow you into service blocks and, where forwarded, the virtual court.
No daily late fee is added on the portal; within the windows you pay the printed amount. Once a court handles the case, the court fixes what you pay.
Yes, if the challan still shows as pending and payable on Parivahan. If it has been forwarded, pay it on the Virtual Courts portal instead. Old challans do not become unpayable; they become slower to clear.
Treat it as running. Notices go to the mobile number registered against the vehicle, and a number you changed years ago will not receive them. Check the portal by vehicle number from time to time, and update the mobile number on your vehicle record.
It can. Once the vehicle is flagged Not to be Transacted and licence and registration applications stop being processed, a transfer will not move until the dues are cleared. Clear pending challans before starting a sale, whichever side of it you are on.
No. One unpaid challan leads to deemed acceptance, the extra 30 days, then service blocks and possible court forwarding. Licence action under the 2026 rules is a separate track aimed at repeat offending, at five or more offences in a year.
Challan rules and timelines change without notice. Verify the dates and the amount on your own challan record on parivahan.gov.in before paying.
Keralam Transport