Good news for all the drivers out there – They do not have to carry original or printed copy of driving license, motor insurance and registration certificate (RC). The Transport Ministry of India has asked traffic police departments of all the states that electronic or digital formats of vehicle documents are good enough. All the drivers can present their documents in soft copy format through DigiLocker or the mParivahan app. These types of digital formats are also legally recognized to be equivalence with the original ones as per the Information Technology Act, 2000.
According to a statement from the Ministry, The Road Transport and Highways Minister has issued a notification to all the states to accept Registration Certificate, Driving Licence, vehicle Insurance or other documents in the ‘electronic form’ and are advised to submit through DigiLocker or mParivahan app since it is valid under the Motor Vehicles Act and treat them at parity with the certificates subjected by the transport authorities. Although this proposal has passed, the state authorities refused to receive such digital documents. The ministry had received numerous complaints about state authorities failing to accept digital or electronic documents as valid.
The Ministry further states that if the vehicle registration details are updated on the mParivahan/eChallan app, then the hard copy of the insurance certificate is also not to be enforced. The statement also revealed occurrences of a possible offence. There would be no requisite of the hard copy of such documents. This IT-based online authentication of certificates is likely to help the enforcement authority in ensuring the authenticity of the details which further would result in better conformity and effective monitoring.
