E-Copies Of Driving License, RC, PUC Will Be Accepted- DCP Traffic

Vehicle owners who tend to forget their documents at home needn’t worry any longer about being penalised for non-production of their license or vehicle registration certificates.

In a welcome move, The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has notified that citizens no longer need to carry physical copies of driving license, insurance, fitness, permit and pollution under check (PUC) certificate.

The documents can be now stored digitally on their smartphones or on applications like Digilocker-(a digital locker operated by the centre) for storing official documents.

The new provision has been passed under Section 139 of the Central Motor Vehicles Act, 1989. As per the amendment the citizens can produce the related documents in an electronic form on demand by any traffic or other authorized officer.

The aim of passing this amendment was to enable the use of the digital platform for carrying essential documents without any fuss or fear of misplacing it. It also aimed towards better citizen facilitation.

The communication from the ministry addressed to the state RTO’s and DGP’s of Police further states that “In view of the above, it is requested to ensure compliance of the amendments made to rule 139 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 and make the enforcement officers aware of the new provisions so that citizen are not harassed/ inconvenienced.”

Dy.Commissioner of Police- Traffic, Tejaswi Satpute confirmed to Pune365 that this is indeed applicable and E-Documents will be accepted as outlined by the notification issued. 

While most citizens applauded this move by The Union Ministry of Road Transport, a few had pertinent questions too-

Shailesh Pawar, Traffic Policemen says, “Most of the times, college student don’t show their license and the reason mainly because either they’re underage drivers, riders or they tend to violate more traffic rules. So, penalising them is going to be easier as per the fresh provision.

Now, there is no excuse for FORGETTING the license. A major relief to the department, because not only college students but also others deny paying the fine.

Divya Mohite, active citizen says, “Digitilisation is welcome, but what if someone misused my documents. Most of the People in the city do not have anti-virus in their phones and phones and applications can be easily hacked.”

Are our details going to be safe in this application? We all know how the security measures of our government works. Also, if a person has denied paying the fine how is government going to confiscate their license? This is a drawback for the department.

For example, if a person found violating the rule and he denies paying the fine. Is the government just going to issue the challan?

Earlier ,the Police would confiscate the license and in order to get it back from them, citizens had to pay the fine, Mohite added.

Ashish Hegde, IT engineer says, “A move towards digitalisation is certainly welcome and carrying e-copies of the documents will certainly ease the process.

Keeping the documents saved on your smartphone is actually very easy. One just needs to download an app called digilocker. Sign in to the app, verifying your mobile number on the basis of OTP received.

Later you can upload and store the pictures of your licence or registration certificate for verification. The app also allows you to store your aadhar and pan card. Hegde added.

Ankur Chatterjee, Techie, shares his experience with the traffic cops, “Today while heading to work, a man in a police uniform stopped me and asked for my license and relevant documents.

I showed him the e-copy through the app, but he refused to accept it and charged me for not carrying the documents.

When I told him about the new provision he simply said that we have not received the order yet and I can’t accept it. The officer took my bike keys and didn’t permit me to leave.

I had no other option but pay the fine and these instances are going to continue.

It simply shows the coordination the Indian government has with their employees. The provision was issued long back, yet, the government authorities are still not accepting e-copies of the relevant documents, Ankur added.

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