PATNA, Aug. 31 -- The Bihar transport department has directed district transport officers (DTOs) to sensitise judicial officers through their respective district legal services authorities (DLSAs) about traffic offences not covered under the government's amnesty scheme, ahead of the next National Lok Adalat on September 12, officials said on Sunday. The directive follows a review of the 37,137 traffic challans taken up for settlement during the previous National Lok Adalat on May 9, the first in Bihar where select traffic challans were considered for disposal at up to 50% of the penalty amount prescribed under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Around 415 challans remain unsettled, largely because they involved offences where concession was inapplicable. The settlement exercise was conducted following Patna high court directions and the Bihar government's April 30 gazette notification introducing the "Traffic Challan One-Time Settlement Scheme, 2026," which allows up to 50% relief on pending challans for specified offences. However, offences categorised under dangerous driving were excluded from the amnesty scheme. Officials said some judicial officers nevertheless allowed a 50% reduction in penalties for such offences while disposing of cases during the May 9 National Lok Adalat. "Most unsettled challans involve multiple violations clubbed together in one challan. In some cases, violations involved offences where concession was inapplicable, but they were overlooked and the total penalty was reduced by 50%," a DTO said, anonymously. A post-lok adalat scrutiny while updating data on the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' Parivahan portal through the National Informatics Centre subsequently detected the discrepancy, leaving such challans pending for settlement, the officer said. Of the pending cases, Bhagalpur accounts for 162 challans involving Rs.2,91,150, followed by Patna with 107 challans (Rs.2,43,000), Muzaffarpur 80 (Rs.1,18,500), Sheikhpura 59 (Rs.3,32,389), Kishanganj six (Rs.67,000) and Saharsa one challan, officials said. The department has also asked DTOs to ensure that amounts paid by individual violators at a 50% rebate during the previous lok adalat, where the concession was subsequently found to be inapplicable, are refunded. Under the state's amnesty scheme, vehicle owners can settle pending e-challans for select offences, including driving without a helmet or seat belt, lack of insurance, overspeeding and absence of a pollution-under-control certificate, by paying up to 50% of the prescribed penalty under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Several violations, however, remain outside the scheme. These include the use of handheld mobile phones while driving, which attracts a Rs.5,000 fine, as well as offences under Section 184 relating to dangerous driving, including jumping red lights, crossing the stop line, wrong-side driving and driving dangerously. Such offences continue to attract penalties ranging from Rs.1,000 to Rs.5,000, depending on the category of vehicle. The April 30 notification followed an April 20 Patna high court directive, in which a division bench comprising chief justice (retd) Sangam Kumar Sahoo and justice Harish Kumar asked the transport department to frame a mechanism to facilitate disposal of pending traffic e-challans at the next National Lok Adalat. The court had flagged around 2.78 lakh pending traffic e-challan cases across Bihar and called for a streamlined settlement process. The court had also pointed to concessional frameworks followed in states, including Odisha, Gujarat and Delhi, for compounding offences at reduced rates under the Motor Vehicles Act. The intervention came during the hearing of a writ petition concerning procedural hurdles in disposing of traffic challan cases through lok adalats. The court had noted that the absence of a reduced-penalty framework had affected disposal in earlier sittings. Only a small number of traffic challans were settled at the National Lok Adalat on March 14, as Bihar had not notified an amnesty scheme at the time. Following the court's intervention and cabinet approval, the state notified the One Time Traffic Challan Settlement Scheme, 2026 on April 30, offering up to 50% relief for select offences. Traffic challans accounted for 52% of the 71,275 pre-litigation matters disposed of across Bihar during the May 9 National Lok Adalat. A total of 36,722 traffic challans were disposed of, with Patna and Banka accounting for around 10,000 cases each and Muzaffarpur nearly 8,000. Settlement of traffic challans, including pre and post-litigation matters, generated Rs.7.39 crore, accounting for 33% of the total 1,09,928 cases disposed of across the state, making traffic challans one of the largest categories of cases settled during the May 9 lok adalat....