Motorists need carry only digital documents

Law enforcers will not demand registration certificate, driving licence in physical form

Vehicular documents, including registration certificate, and driving licence of motorists, found validated through electronic means will not be demanded in physical forms for inspection by the law enforcers.

Instead, the motorists can show the documents in digital format in the mParivahan, the mobile application of the MoRTH that allows users to get details of vehicles such as owner name, vehicle manufacturer, insurance and fitness validity among others or in the DigiLocker, the national Digital Locker System launched for providing paperless governance.

Use of IT services and electronic monitoring is expected to lead to better enforcement of traffic rules, end complaints of harassment and hassle-free travel. The step towards easing commuter convenience has been possible with the Centre digitising documents, including maintenance of the motor vehicles, driving licences and e-challans from Thursday.

Better enforcement

In Kerala, the introduction of e-challan by Motor Vehicles Department in January this year and followed by the Kerala Police in five major cities have come in handy. “The enforcement has been tightened and erring motorists are being booked on the spot using hand-held machines. The vehicles coming from other States cannot now escape checking as details can be verified,” Joint Transport Commissioner Rajeev Puthalath said.

If the details of the documents are found validated through the electronic means by the enforcement officer, then physical forms of such documents will not be demanded, including in cases where there is an offence made out necessitating for the seizure of documents.

Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has issued notifications regarding various amendments in Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 requiring the implementation of enforcement, Maintenance of Vehicular Documents and e-Challans for better monitoring and enforcement of the MV Rules.

Keeping tab

Henceforth, details of driving licences disqualified or revoked by the licensing authority will be recorded chronologically in the portal and will be updated on a regular basis on the portal. This will keep the law enforcers to keep a tab on the driving behaviour.

Already, amendments have been made in the Motor Vehicles (Driving) Regulations 2017 to align it to the Amendment in the Act such as the use of hand-held devices and inspection of documents in electronic form.