Calcutta police apparently don't update their traffic penalty records each time a fine is paid in a bank, leaving vehicle owners liable to be summoned to court for non-compliance on the basis of citation cases shown as pending.

An elderly Calcuttan who has preserved the receipts issued against traffic fines paid months ago discovered recently that the corresponding citation cases were still pending against her name in the police records.

"I went to the Calcutta traffic police website to check if there were pending cases against my vehicle and was shocked to see that old cases for which I had paid the fines had not been disposed of. Luckily, I had kept the bank receipts of some of the fines I had paid last year with which I can prove that the records have not been updated. But for the older cases, I have lost the receipts. Are we supposed to keep the receipts forever because the police won't bother to update their records?" said the woman, who does not want to be identified.

On Monday evening, the website showed a pending payment against a traffic offence cited at the crossing of AJC Bose Road and Ballygunge Circular Road at 9.47am on June 2, 2014. But documents in possession of Metro show that the fine of Rs 100 was paid on June 23, 2014. The receipt bears the traffic police department's stamp along with a counterfoil from the bank through which the payment was made against a service charge of Rs 10.

The vehicle owner had paid the traffic fines through a bank because she felt a physical receipt was a more reliable proof of payment than a digital one.

If fines remain unpaid for months, the police usually forward the respective challans to a court, which might summon the vehicle owner. Any delay in updating the records could result in a vehicle owner being summoned despite having paid the stipulated fine.

The onus would then be on the owner to produce a receipt and prove that the fine has been paid. In cases where the police records don't match an individual's claim and a vehicle owner hasn't preserved the receipt, the person would be asked to pay the fine again.

Officers in the traffic department conceded that there were instances of data pertaining to closed cases not being updated on the police website because of oversight, a huge backlog or irregular updates from banks authorised to receive payments.

Bank officials passed the buck, saying it was the police's duty to update their records.

Once a fine is paid in a bank branch, three copies of the receipt are generated. One is retained for the bank records, another is handed to the depositor and the third is meant for the police.

The fines collected every day are deposited in the traffic police department's bank accounts but the receipts are not sent to Lalbazar on a daily basis, sources said.

"As a bank, our duty is to inform the police about the total remittance through traffic fines paid in our branches. We send them the receipts based on requirement and Calcutta police have not complained of any delay on our part," said a senior official of UCO Bank.

UCO is one of the three banks where traffic fines against cases registered by Calcutta police can be paid.

An official of UBI said police personnel do come to the bank occasionally to collect receipts. "We don't send the receipts, police officers come to collect them. But they don't come regularly," said M. Talukdar, manager of the Lalbazar branch of UBI.

Besides banks, vehicle owners who receive challans for traffic violations have the option of paying fines online or at the police headquarters in Lalbazar.

"More than 10,000 citation cases are registered every day. The data reaches us within 24 hours. But since we don't get the payment receipts from banks on a regular basis, it takes time to remove cases that have been disposed of from our website," an officer said.

Sources said details of fines paid online or directly at Lalbazar were being updated on the website within a day of payment. But payments made through banks take time - sometimes even years - to be reflected in the police records.

A senior officer in the traffic department offered a solution: "Pay and inform the police."

But what's the point in visiting a bank to pay a fine if a vehicle owner needs to inform Lalbazar that the payment has been made? "There is always the possibility of human error. It is best to take the receipt from the bank and visit either Lalbazar or any Traffic Guard and ask our officers to dispose of the case. Better do it yourself than wait for the police to dispose of your case," the officer advised.