Wrongly challaned for jumping signal, teacher gets relief after three months

After he was issued the challan, Sharma made a short video of the faulty traffic lights, which showed that the signal had turned green for 33 seconds but it switched to red in 20 seconds.

wrong challan, chandigarh, ut traffic police, gcg, govt collg of girls, indian express

National Lok Adalat discharged Deepak Sharma from the challan. (Express)

A teacher of Government College for Girls (GCG), who was wrongly challaned by the Chandigarh Traffic Police, finally got relief on Saturday when the National Lok Adalat discharged him from the challan after nearly three months. Dr Deepak Sharma (32), who works as a resource person and teaches police administration and public administration at GCG, Sector 42, was issued the challan by the traffic police on November 13, 2017, at the intersection of Sector 33/45 for jumping red signal. However, at the time, he was stopped by a traffic policeman to which Sharma objected, claiming the timer of the traffic lights was not functioning properly.

“On the day I was a issued challan while crossing the intersection, the light was green. But, due to some fault, it turned red despite 13 seconds remaining. I was stopped by the traffic police after which I pointed out the fault in the timer. The policeman, however, spoke to me rudely and issued a challan for jumping the red signal and seized the registration certificate (RC) of my car,” stated Sharma.

After he was issued the challan, Sharma made a short video of the faulty traffic lights, which showed that the signal had turned green for 33 seconds but it switched to red in 20 seconds. Sharma then lodged a complaint, attaching the video, with SSP (Traffic) Shashank Anand on Twitter and the latter responded. He ordered the DSP (Traffic) and a traffic police inspector to conduct an inquiry and the traffic signal was also repaired the next day.

Meanwhile, during the inquiry, the traffic lights were shown to the UT engineering department, which found that the timer on the light had shown the previous time due to the sudden spike in power. So, the UT Police inquiry reported that the challan had been wrongly issued to Sharma and it should be cancelled.

Speaking to Chandigarh Newsline, Sharma said, “Though the police inquiry was over in December 2017, I have been going to the police department and also to courts to get my RC. Fortunately, I came to the court today where the Lok Adalat was held and I was able to approach the judicial officer, who after sometime, verified my case and told me that I have been discharged from the challan.”

The college teacher added, “It is sheer harassment as I was issued challan for no fault of mine and apart from this, I had to wait for three months to be freed from this matter. Even today, I had to wait in the court with people, booked under the excise Act for consuming liquor in public and who were made to wait Till the Court Rises.”

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