In a major development, The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has asked the state transport departments and traffic police to accept Driving Licence, Registration Certificate or other documents in 'electronic form' presented through DigiLocker or mParivahan platform as valid under the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 and treat them at par with the certificates issued by the transport authorities.
The advisory was issued citing the provisions of Information Technology (IT) Act. As the electronic records available on Digi Locker or mParivahan are deemed to be legally recognized at par with the original documents as per the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
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.
The advisory further said that the data related to the insurance of new vehicles and renewal of insurance of vehicles is also being uploaded by the Insurance Information Board (IIB) on the VAHAN database on a daily basis now and the same is reflected on the mParivahan/eChallan app of the ministry.
Regarding cases of offence, the advisory states that when there is a requirement of the documents to be impounded, the enforcement agencies can have such impounding reflected in the VAHAN/ SARATHI database electronically through the 'eChallan' system. There would be no requirement of physical seizure of the such documents. This IT based online verification of certificates is expected to help the enforcement authority in ensuring the genuineness of the details which further would result in better compliance and effective monitoring.
According to the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, and the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989, the owner/driver has to produce the documents -- licence or certificate of registration etc. to the authority on demand.
