The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) have officially issued a notification that allows motorists to carry their driving licence, vehicle registration certificate and other documents on their smartphone through two online platforms or apps, DigiLocker or mParivahan.
The MoRTH have informed all states to start accepting digital versions of these documents as per validity under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 as official documentation. The online platforms link these vehicle documents with a person’s Aadhaar card and will also be used to hand out ‘eChallan’ fines for any infringement of road and transport laws that may be committed by a motorist.
A statement in a leading business daily stated that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) had issued an advisory to states 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 to treat them at par with the certificates issued by transport authorities. The advisory clarified that the DigiLocker platform of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the mParivahan mobile app of the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has the facility to pull a citizen’s driving licence or the registration certificate or any other certificate in an electronic form.
The statement further added that if the vehicle registration details on the mParivahan/eChallan app contain the details of the policy which is in force, then the requirement of a physical copy of the insurance certificate is also not to be enforced. There would be no requirement of a physical seizure of 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.
The DigiLocker app seems to be fairly user-friendly and, yes, is iOS friendly too. All in all, the move is promising and hopefully will work without too many hitches, either with the app or enforcement of it. Could this be the start of all documentation moving onto an online platform? Does not seem like a far off thought and is a good thing. No ‘Black Mirror’ fears here.
Story: Zal Cursetji
