All vehicle owners need to have a few documents with them to legally ride/drive a vehicle. Driving license, vehicle registration, PUC certificate and insurance policy needs to be with you at all times when driving a vehicle. But as cumbersome it may seem, it is an age old way to physically carry all these documents with you. Digital revolution in India has taken most things online, including a way to store these documents. With these documents in your smartphone, you no longer need to worry of physically carrying them with you. Also, it reduces the chances of misplacing them.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the Central Motor Vehicle Rules were amended in November of 2018 which permit the vehicle owners to carry documents like registration certificate, fitness certificate, pollution-under-control certificate, driving license and other relevant documents like the vehicle insurance policy in electronic form. These documents are critical vehicle and driver-related documents and are often inspected by traffic officials.

But does simply carrying a photograph in your photo album work? The answer is no. The Ministry has authorised two applications for this purpose—DigiLocker and mParivahan. Only those users that carry the required documents stored in these apps are deemed valid. It not only helps complying the documentation requirement, but also stay away from hefty penalties introduced in the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019. Let’s look at how these documents can help to store your papers in a softy copy:

DigiLocker

An initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) is the DigiLocker application which helps authenticate the documents stored in digital format. The validity of the documents in this app is for the same duration as the original underlying document. This is as per the Information Technology (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries Providing Digital Locker Facilities) Rules, 2016. DigiLocker can not only be accessed on a mobile device, but also on web browsers thereby making cross platform access to users. Moreover, the application in addition to bike/ car insurance policy and registration documents supports various other documents like e-Aadhaar, documents issued by the educational institutes, general and life insurance policies and even the banks. It is like a vault for all your important documents that are permit access to the application.

DigiLocker requires simple Aadhar-based verification to create and account and access the vault. Next, you need to import all those documents that are linked to your Aadhar number. Here is where you can find vehicle related as well as your insurance documents. But a limitation of this application does not permit to store the PUC certificate which means you will still be required to carry one physically. 

mParivahan

Unlike DigiLocker, mParivahan application is specifically designed to store vehicle related documents. It can be either a private or commercial vehicle insurance policy, pollution certificate, vehicle’s fitness certificate, registration certificate along with your driving license.

To store your vehicle-related documents on this app, you need to create an account linked to your mobile number. But to view documents, no registration is required. The sign in process is straightforward using a one-time password that is sent your mobile number. Not only documents can be store, but also shared with other family members.

These are some ways how using mobile based application, you can store your documents. Please note that insurance is the subject matter of solicitation. For more details on benefits, exclusions, limitations, terms and conditions, please read sales brochure/policy wording carefully before concluding a sale.