No need to carry driving license, vehicle papers anymore: Road Transport Ministry

The Ministry of Road Transport has issued a notification in which it has made it very clear to every State to accept Driving License and Vehicle papers on DigiLocker and mParivahan. During an offence when the documents are required to impound a vehicle, the law agency can access Vahan Sarthi database online through eChallan system and therefore eliminating the need of physically seizure of any such documents. These documents are to be considered the same as certificates issued by transport authorities.

The advisory clarified the two platforms have the facility to pull a citizen’s documents in an electronic form. It added that the data related to insurance of new vehicles and renewal of insurance is also being uploaded by the Insurance Information Board on the database on a daily basis and the same is reflected on the mParivahan and eChallan app of the Ministry.

This is in response to a number of grievances and RTI applications received in the ministry where citizens have raised the issue that the documents available in DigiLocker or the mParivahan app are not considered valid by the traffic police or the motor vehicles department, when asked to produce.

So with the approval of DigiLocker, it is now officially no longer needed to carry one’s original driving license or registration certificates alongwith while driving.