PANAJI
A technology-driven traffic crackdown across Goa has come under immense legal strain after official records clearly show that enforcement tools were deployed for several months without the certification required by law. This has cast doubt on fines worth more than Rs 3 crore collected since 2024.
Documents obtained by The Goan through Right to Information indicate that police in North and South Goa issued thousands of challans including for speeding and drunken driving, even before obtaining the mandatory certification required under Rule 167-A of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.
That rule requires electronic enforcement equipment to be tested and certified for accuracy by a state-designated authority. The certification, as per official records, was granted only on February 20, 2026 which does not mention mobile phones.
Moreover, the gap between deployment and approval has raised the prospect that penalties imposed before that date may not withstand legal scrutiny.
By the government’s own accounting, enforcement drives up to February this year brought in roughly Rs 3.24 crore. Officials familiar with the matter told The Goan that, in the absence of certification, both the penalties and the underlying violations could be open to challenge, leaving the State exposed to demands for reversal or refund.
The disclosures also described the extensive use of mobile phones by traffic personnel to document violations. In North Goa alone, 22,042 challans were issued in 2025 using images captured on such devices, yielding more than Rs 1.08 crore in compounding fees.
In South Goa, the traffic police issued a total of 30,249 challans during the same calendar year, collecting Rs 97,07,100 in compounding fees from traffic violations.
Mobile phones, whether privately owned or issued by the department, do not fall within the category of certified enforcement devices under existing rules. Their use in thousands of cases has raised fresh questions about whether the evidence relied upon meets legal standards.
“This is not a technical defect that can be brushed aside. If the instrument itself lacks legal validity, the cases built on it become vulnerable,” a senior official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Further RTI reply by the Traffic Police has pointed to its inventory of speed radar guns and body-worn cameras to demonstrate compliance.
But those systems, too, were formally validated only in February, after most of the enforcement activity had already taken place.
The records have also suggested that electronic monitoring has rapidly become a significant source of revenue, with collections from traffic violations rising sharply over the past two years. The department has yet to come on record as to whether it will revisit penalties imposed before certification or outline a mechanism to address potential claims from motorists.
