Tamil Nadu e-Challan: Check Status & Pay Online

To check a traffic challan in Tamil Nadu, enter your vehicle number on NextGen eChallan – eChallan Services (the portal that serves Tamil Nadu) or the national portal echallan.parivahan.gov.in. Payment is done on the same official portal via Online on the NextGen eChallan portal (echallan.parivahan.nic.in) — select the challan, then complete payment on the government payment gateway the portal redirects you to, Online through the NextGen mParivahan app, which uses the same eChallan back-end, Online through the Virtual Courts ePay gateway at vcourts.gov.in for challans already referred to the Tamil Nadu Traffic Department virtual court, On-the-spot compounding fee collected by the enforcing officer — G.O.(Ms) No.758 expressly directs "Collection of Compounding Fees by cashless transaction through Electronically/E-challan" by the authorised Police and Transport officers, relying on s.211A MV Act for electronic payment.

Last verified: 12 Aug 2026

How to check your Tamil Nadu challan

Open https://echallan.parivahan.nic.in/challan/challan-services — Tamil Nadu challans live on the NextGen portal, NOT on the older echallan.parivahan.gov.in site. The legacy site's own notice board lists TN among the states that must use NextGen.
Click the "Check Pending Challan Status" tile (first card on the services grid).
Choose one of the three tabs across the top of the form: "Challan Number", "Vehicle Number" or "DL Number".
On the "Challan Number" tab just type the challan number. On the "Vehicle Number" tab NextGen asks for TWO things — "Vehicle Number" and "Registration Date" in DD/MM/YYYY (take it off your RC). This replaces the last-5-digits-of-chassis/engine check the old portal used.
Type the code shown in the "Enter Captcha" box. There is a speaker icon to hear it and a circular-arrow icon to generate a new one if it is unreadable.
Click "GET DETAILS". The results table shows violator name, DL/RC number, challan number, challan date, state, department, amount and status, with links to print the challan.
If nothing is returned, re-check the registration date, or try the Challan Number tab using the number in the SMS/notice — vehicle-number lookups fail if the RC date does not match Vahan exactly.

How to pay a Tamil Nadu challan online

From https://echallan.parivahan.nic.in/challan/challan-services open the "Pay Challan" tile — or simply use the pay action against a challan row you already pulled up via "Check Pending Challan Status".
Identify the challan the same way as for checking: Challan Number, or Vehicle Number plus Registration Date (DD/MM/YYYY), or DL Number, then clear the captcha.
Select the challan(s) you want to settle and proceed — the portal hands you off to the government payment gateway.
Complete the payment on the gateway and let the browser return to the portal on its own; do not close the tab mid-transaction.
Save proof using the "Download Payment Receipt" tile, and "Download Challan Print" if you need the challan copy itself.
If money was debited but the challan still shows as pending, use "Check Pending Transaction" (linked from the portal's Notice Board and Important Links) to reconcile it BEFORE paying a second time.
If the challan no longer appears on the eChallan portal it has probably been referred to the Virtual Court — settle it at https://vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt/ under "Tamil Nadu(Traffic Department)" instead.

Official portals for Tamil Nadu

Portal	Use for
NextGen eChallan – eChallan Services (the portal that serves Tamil Nadu)	Check & pay
NextGen eChallan – Check Pending Challan Status	check
Virtual Courts – select "Tamil Nadu(Traffic Department)" for challans sent to court	Check & pay
Legacy MoRTH eChallan portal (no longer serves TN – its notice board redirects TN to NextGen)	check
eChallan grievance / helpdesk contact page	check

Check by SMS or app

NextGen mParivahan mobile app (NIC / MoRTH) — the same eChallan back-end as the NextGen web portal, for checking and paying challans. The NextGen portal carries a standing warning to "beware of fraudulent websites and mobile apps impersonating our echallan services" and to use only the official website/app, so install only the NIC-published listing.
e-challans generated by camera enforcement are notified to the violator on the registered mobile number; the challan number in that SMS is the fastest input on the portal's "Challan Number" tab.
No Tamil Nadu-specific SMS short-code or state challan app was found documented on any official Tamil Nadu Government, TN Police or TN Transport page.

Court challans in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is live on the national Virtual Courts platform. The department dropdown at https://vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt/ carries exactly one Tamil Nadu entry — "Tamil Nadu(Traffic Department)" (court code TNVC01, state code 10). There is no Tamil Nadu Transport-Department virtual court, so RTO/check-post challans issued by Motor Vehicles Inspectors have no virtual-court route and follow the ordinary magistrate process. NIC's own eChallan documentation states that an eChallan left unpaid is automatically forwarded to the Virtual Court after 90 days under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, where adjudication proceedings begin. Once that happens the challan stops being settleable on the eChallan portal and must be dealt with at vcourts.gov.in. To settle it: open https://vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt/, pick "Tamil Nadu(Traffic Department)", click "Proceed Now", and on the search screen choose one of four tabs — "Mobile Number", "CNR Number", "Party Name" or "Challan/Vehicle No." — fill the identifier, clear the captcha (audio and refresh icons are provided) and click "Submit". You can then plead guilty and pay the fine online through the ePay gateway; vcourts states the payment APIs are shared by the High Courts and the state Finance Departments. The case is disposed on payment and the receipt can be downloaded and reprinted. If you dispute the challan, the Virtual Court platform itself warns that "for adjudication purpose the Litigant may have to appear in person or through the Lawyer in the Court" — a contested Tamil Nadu traffic case therefore moves to the jurisdictional magistrate rather than being decided online. Two Tamil Nadu-specific points matter. First, drunk driving under s.185 is not compoundable at all — it is absent from Tamil Nadu's Table-II compounding schedule in G.O.(Ms) No.758 and is outside the s.200 MV Act compoundable list — so it is always a court matter, never an online settlement. Second, G.O.(Ms) No.758 directs the enforcement officer to seize the driving licence and forward it to the licensing authority for disqualification or revocation proceedings under s.19 where the offence falls under ss.183, 184, 185, 189, 190, 194C, 194D or 194E, so a licence action can run alongside the court case. Lok Adalat settlement of pending traffic cases is organised periodically by the legal services authorities through the district courts, but no Tamil Nadu-specific Lok Adalat schedule or discount was found on an official page and none should be assumed.

Traffic fine amounts in Tamil Nadu

Offence	Section	First offence	Repeat	In Tamil Nadu
Dangerous driving and jumping a red light	Section 184	First offence: imprisonment for not less than 6 months and up to 1 year, or a fine of not less than ₹1,000 and up to ₹5,000, or both	Second or subsequent offence committed within three years of a previous similar offence: imprisonment up to 2 years, or a fine of ₹10,000, or both	₹1,000 for the first offence and ₹10,000 for a second or subsequent offence under s.184. A red-light or signage violation booked instead under s.177 compounds at ₹500 first / ₹1,500 repeat.
Riding without a helmet	Section 194D read with Section 129	₹1,000 fine and disqualification from holding a driving licence for three months	₹1,000 — Section 194D fixes a single amount and does not prescribe a higher figure for repeat offences; the Delhi Traffic Police schedule likewise shows ₹1,000 for first and subsequent offences	Standard amount
Driving without insurance	Section 196 read with Section 146	First offence: imprisonment up to 3 months, or a fine of ₹2,000, or both	Subsequent offence: imprisonment up to 3 months, or a fine of ₹4,000, or both	Standard amount
Driving without a valid licence	Section 181 read with Section 3	Imprisonment up to 3 months, or a fine of ₹5,000, or both	₹5,000 — Section 181 sets one amount and does not prescribe a higher repeat figure; Delhi's published schedule also shows ₹5,000 for first and subsequent offences	Standard amount
Driving without a valid PUC certificate	Section 190(2)	First offence: imprisonment up to 3 months, or a fine which may extend to ₹10,000, or both — and disqualification from holding a licence for three months. There is no statutory minimum, but Delhi's notified schedule compounds it at the ₹10,000 ceiling	Second or subsequent offence: imprisonment up to 6 months, or a fine which may extend to ₹10,000, or both (the mandatory disqualification is written only into the first-offence limb)	Standard amount
Driving an unregistered vehicle (no RC)	Section 192 read with Section 39	First offence: a fine of not less than ₹2,000 and up to ₹5,000	Second or subsequent offence: imprisonment up to 1 year, or a fine of not less than ₹5,000 and up to ₹10,000, or both	₹2,500 for the first offence and ₹5,000 for a second or subsequent offence under s.192(1). Merely failing to produce the RC on demand is a separate, lower ₹500 offence under s.177.
Driving without a seat belt	Section 194B	₹1,000 for the driver, and ₹1,000 where a child under fourteen is not secured by a seat belt or child restraint system	₹1,000 — Section 194B prescribes a flat amount with no separate repeat-offence figure; Delhi's published schedule shows ₹1,000 for both first and subsequent offences	Standard amount
Drunken driving	Section 185	First offence: imprisonment up to 6 months, or a fine of ₹10,000, or both	Second or subsequent offence: imprisonment up to 2 years, or a fine of ₹15,000, or both — and, unlike before 2019, there is no three-year window, so any earlier conviction counts	Standard amount
Using a mobile phone while driving	Section 184, Explanation clause (c)	First offence under Section 184: imprisonment for not less than 6 months and up to 1 year, or a fine of not less than ₹1,000 and up to ₹5,000, or both. State compounding amounts vary widely within that band — Delhi's schedule pins it at the ₹5,000 ceiling, while Maharashtra grades it by vehicle class at ₹1,000 for a 2/3-wheeler, ₹2,000 for an LMV and ₹4,000 for other vehicles	Second or subsequent offence within three years of a previous similar offence: imprisonment up to 2 years, or a fine of ₹10,000, or both — Delhi's schedule shows ₹10,000 for a subsequent offence	₹1,000 for the first offence and ₹10,000 for a second or subsequent offence — Tamil Nadu lists handheld-communication-device use together with dangerous driving in one s.184 entry.
Overspeeding	Section 183(1) read with Section 112	Light motor vehicle: not less than ₹1,000 and up to ₹2,000. Medium or heavy goods or passenger vehicle: not less than ₹2,000 and up to ₹4,000	Same money range, but for a second or subsequent offence under Section 183(1) the driving licence of the driver shall be impounded as provided in Section 206(4)	₹1,000 for a light motor vehicle (s.183(1)(i)) and ₹2,000 for a medium or heavy goods/passenger vehicle (s.183(1)(ii)) — Tamil Nadu notified flat figures instead of the central range.

Things specific to Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu has MIGRATED to the NextGen eChallan portal. The legacy MoRTH portal's notice board says verbatim: "NOTE : Please check and pay your challans of 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, GJ States on NextGen eChallan Portal". Using echallan.parivahan.gov.in for a TN challan will simply not find it.
Stale official page: the Tamil Nadu Transport Department's own site (tnsta.gov.in) still advertises "Pay your fine/traffic penalty here" pointing at the OLD portal, https://echallan.parivahan.gov.in/index/accused-challan. That link is out of date for TN.
There is NO Tamil Nadu state e-challan portal. echallan.tnpolice.gov.in — quoted by many guides — does not resolve in DNS at all (ENOTFOUND).
The Tamil Nadu Police citizen portal moved from eservices.tnpolice.gov.in (which now 302s) to police.tn.gov.in. The new portal's Citizen Services menu contains NO traffic-challan payment option — Free Services are complaint/FIR/CSR/vehicle verification etc., Paid Services are only Lost Document Report, Road Accident Documents and Police Verification Report. The widely-repeated "TN Police site → e-payments for traffic challan" route is dead.
NextGen's "Vehicle Number" lookup asks for the vehicle's "Registration Date" (DD/MM/YYYY) as the second field — NOT the last 5 digits of chassis/engine number that the old parivahan.gov.in portal used. Guides written for the old portal will send you looking for the wrong number.
The NextGen portal's "Contact Us" button is a dead link (href="javascript:void(0)") and the portal publishes no helpline of its own; the only eChallan helpdesk phone/email is still on the legacy portal's grievance page.
Tamil Nadu's compounding schedule is Table-II of G.O.(Ms) No.758, Home (Transport-VII) Department, dated 19.10.2022, in force from 20 October 2022, superseding Home Department Notification No. II(2)/HO/519/2011 (Gazette, 28 December 2011). Fine charts published before late 2022 are obsolete for TN.
Where the central Act gives a RANGE, Tamil Nadu notified a single compounding figure at or near the floor — s.183(1)(i) LMV over-speeding ₹1,000, s.184 dangerous driving ₹1,000, s.192(1) no registration ₹2,500. The payable e-challan amount is therefore often lower than the "up to ₹5,000" style figures quoted in news charts.
Tamil Nadu's Table-II lumps "Driving dangerously (rash and negligent driving)" and "Use of handheld communication devices while driving" into a single s.184 entry, even though s.200 MV Act makes only the handheld-device limb of s.184 compoundable. A pure dangerous-driving or red-light case can still be pushed to court rather than compounded.
Red-light and signage violations are frequently booked under s.177 as "Violation of mandatory traffic signs" — ₹500 first offence, ₹1,500 second and subsequent in TN's Table-II — rather than under s.184, so the amount on the challan depends on the section the officer selected.
Section 185 (drunk driving) appears nowhere in Tamil Nadu's compounding schedule and is not compoundable under s.200 MV Act, so it can never be settled on the e-challan portal — it goes to court.
G.O.(Ms) No.758 records the Attorney General of India's view, conveyed by MoRTH, that a State Government "cannot pass any law / take executive action to lower the penalty / fine below that prescribed under the statutory provisions of the Motor vehicles Act, unless the assent of the President is obtained". This is why TN's schedule never dips below the central minimum.
Only one Tamil Nadu department exists on Virtual Courts — "Tamil Nadu(Traffic Department)" (TNVC01). Unlike Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Manipur, Kerala and Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu has no Transport-Department virtual court, so transport/check-post challans have no virtual-court settlement route.
vcourts deep links are session-bound: pasting a ?p=casestatus/index&state_cd=10&court_code=TNVC01 style URL bounces you back to the home page. You must select the department from the dropdown and click "Proceed Now".
Under Table-I of the G.O., police officers not below Special Sub-Inspector rank (including Traffic Police) compound offences across the whole state except Transport Department check posts, while Motor Vehicles Inspectors handle the check posts — so the issuing agency shown on the challan differs by where you were stopped.

Frequently asked questions

Which website do I use for a Tamil Nadu e-challan — echallan.parivahan.gov.in or the NextGen site?

The NextGen site, https://echallan.parivahan.nic.in. The older echallan.parivahan.gov.in portal's own notice board lists TN among the states whose challans must be checked and paid on the NextGen eChallan Portal, so a TN challan simply will not appear on the old site. Note that the Tamil Nadu Transport Department's site (tnsta.gov.in) still links to the old portal — that link is out of date.

Why does the portal ask for a "Registration Date" when I search by vehicle number?

NextGen verifies you on the Vehicle Number tab using the vehicle's registration date in DD/MM/YYYY format, printed on your RC. This replaced the last-5-digits-of-chassis-or-engine-number check used by the old parivahan.gov.in portal, which is why older how-to guides tell you to look for the wrong number. The Challan Number and DL Number tabs do not need it.

How much is the helmet and seat-belt fine in Tamil Nadu?

₹1,000 each. Tamil Nadu's compounding schedule — Table-II of G.O.(Ms) No.758, Home (Transport-VII) Department, dated 19.10.2022 and in force from 20 October 2022 — sets s.194D (protective headgear for rider and pillion) at ₹1,000 and s.194B(1) (seat belt, driver and passengers) at ₹1,000. Not securing a child under 14 with a belt or child restraint under s.194B(2) is also ₹1,000. These match the central figures, so there is no Tamil Nadu discount.

Can I settle a drunk-driving challan online in Tamil Nadu?

No. Section 185 does not appear anywhere in Tamil Nadu's Table-II compounding schedule, and s.200 of the Motor Vehicles Act does not list s.185 among compoundable offences, so it cannot be paid off on the e-challan portal at all. The case has to be decided by a court. G.O.(Ms) No.758 additionally directs the officer to seize the driving licence in s.185 cases and forward it to the licensing authority for disqualification or revocation proceedings under s.19.

What does over-speeding actually cost in Tamil Nadu?

Tamil Nadu notified a flat figure rather than the central range. Under Table-II it is ₹1,000 for a light motor vehicle (s.183(1)(i)) and ₹2,000 for a medium or heavy goods or passenger vehicle (s.183(1)(ii)). Because the state pinned the amount at the bottom of the central band, the payable e-challan is often lower than the "up to" figures quoted in general traffic-fine charts.

What happens if I never pay my Tamil Nadu e-challan?

NIC's eChallan documentation states that an unpaid eChallan is automatically forwarded to the Virtual Court after 90 days under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, at which point adjudication proceedings begin. From then on the challan is no longer settleable on the eChallan portal — you have to deal with it at https://vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt/ under "Tamil Nadu(Traffic Department)", where you can plead guilty and pay online, or contest it and appear before the jurisdictional magistrate.

I paid but the challan still shows as pending — what do I do?

Do not pay again immediately. The NextGen portal has a dedicated "Check Pending Transaction" service, linked both from the Notice Board and the Important Links panel, for payments that are pending, stuck or debited from your account without the challan clearing. Use that to reconcile the transaction first. If it stays unresolved, the eChallan helpdesk is 0120-4925505 (6:00 AM – 10:00 PM) or helpdesk-echallan[at]gov[dot]in, listed on the legacy portal's grievance page.

Are camera-generated challans valid in Tamil Nadu, and what can cameras book me for?

Yes. MoRTH notified rule 167A of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules via G.S.R. 575(E) dated 11 August 2021 for electronic monitoring and enforcement, covering speed cameras, CCTV, speed guns, body-worn and dashboard cameras, ANPR and weigh-in-motion machines. Footage can support challans for over-speeding (ss.112/183), unauthorised parking (s.122), safety measures for riders and pillion (s.128), no helmet (s.129), the s.184 group including red-light jumping and handheld phone use, overloading (s.194(1)/(1A)), no seat belt (s.194B) and failure to give way to emergency vehicles (s.194E). Each electronic challan must carry photographic evidence, the device measurement, date/time/place and a s.65B Evidence Act certificate.

Sources

echallan.parivahan.gov.in — https://echallan.parivahan.gov.in/index/accused-challan
echallan.parivahan.gov.in — https://echallan.parivahan.gov.in/
echallan.parivahan.gov.in — https://echallan.parivahan.gov.in/index/grievance
echallan.parivahan.nic.in — https://echallan.parivahan.nic.in/challan/challan-services
echallan.parivahan.nic.in — https://echallan.parivahan.nic.in/challan
tnsta.gov.in — https://tnsta.gov.in/
tnsta.gov.in — https://tnsta.gov.in/whatsnew/whatsnew_tn_9DFKSOo_2023_03_27.pdf
tnsta.gov.in — https://tnsta.gov.in/whatsnew/whatsnew_tn_2asgRtT_2024_07_05.pdf
vcourts.gov.in — https://vcourts.gov.in/
vcourts.gov.in — https://vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt/
vcourts.gov.in — https://vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt/index.php
vcourts.gov.in — https://vcourts.gov.in/virtualcourt/main.php
www.police.tn.gov.in — https://www.police.tn.gov.in/citizenportal/pages/helpline
eservices.tnpolice.gov.in — https://eservices.tnpolice.gov.in/CCTNSNICSDC/
www.pib.gov.in — https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1747285
informatics.nic.in — https://informatics.nic.in/files/websites/april-2025/echallan.php

TrafficChallan.com is an independent information website, not affiliated with any government body. Challan payments happen only on official government portals we link to.