New Delhi, Aug 10 (ET): The road transport ministry has asked state transport departments and traffic police not to insist on original (hard copy) documents like driving licence, registration certificate and insurance papers for verification.

The advisory was issued citing the provisions of Information Technology (IT) Act. It also said that any of these documents in “electronic form” authenticated through the DigiLocker or mParivahan apps of the government should be treated as valid.

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.

MoRTH has also proposed installation of FASTags on the front windscreens. FASTag is a device that uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for making toll payments directly from the user account.

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.