india

Updated: Dec 19, 2018 00:05 IST

Ever since the transport ministry said on November 19 that vehicle owners and users could produce electronic formats of the driving licence and the registration, traffic policemen have been wondering whether all electronic copies of these documents are kosher, how to validate these, and, in cases where the drivers have violated laws, seize or impound them.

On Monday, the transport ministry finally released a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for validating information or impounding the documents in electronic form.

“A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) may be adopted for ensuring compliance with the provisions of rule 139 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989,” the transport ministry said in a letter addressed to all state transport, police and transport police departments.

Rule 139 states the driver or a conductor of a motor vehicle can produce in physical or electronic form the certificates of registration, insurance, fitness and permit, pollution under check, and the driving licence for any other relevant documents on demand by any police officer in uniform or any other officer authorised by the state government.

According to the SOP, only vehicle registration, insurance and driving licence documents is available in government operated mParivahan or eChallan apps can be used to produce these documents in electronic form.

“ Your information is available on these two apps only, which is why in our SOP we have mentioned that as per the IT Act the definition of “electronic form” is a document which can be generated and replicated only through these apps. There are two mechanisms in this, you can either download and save the documents before and show them to the enforcement officer when asked to, or, if online connectivity is available, you can show your details produced through mParivahan,” an official at the ministry of road transport and highways said asking not to be identified.

The DigiLocker platform of the ministry of electronics and information technology has the facility to pull a citizen’s driving license or the certificate of registration details in an electronic form.

The transport ministry finally released a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for validating information or impounding the documents in electronic form. ( Sunil Ghosh/HT File Photo )

“These electronic records available on DigiLocker or mParivahan are deemed to be legally recognised at par with the original documents as per the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000,” the SOP said.

The driving licence, registration certificate, fitness validity, and insurance documents related to vehicles are available on a real time basis on the mParivahan mobile app. mParivahan is available for everyone while eChallan can only be used by enforcement officers from the transport or police department.

“ The enforcement officer can enter the details of driving license (DL) or the certificate of registration (RC) in their eChallan or mParivahan application to validate the information provided for the driving licence, certificate of registration, fitness, insurance, tax etc. This will be done online,” the SOP noted..

“The enforcement officers can also issue challans online through the app by typing the registration number which will automatically show all the details,” the official said.

As for impounding them, the officer can carry out challan operation, including tagging of the driving licence or the certificate of registration for impounding or suspension.