The Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways on Thursday extended the validity of the documents related to Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, till September 30. "In a bid to help citizens in availing transport related services while maintaining social distancing, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has further extended the validity of documents related to Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, till September 30, 2021," the ministry said in a statement.\

The ministry had issued five advisories between March 2020 and March 2021 regarding the same. It was advised that the validity of fitness certificate, permit (all types), licence, registration or any other concerned document(s) might be treated to be valid till June 30, 2021. This has now been extended up to September 30.

This covers all documents whose validity has expired since February 2020 or would expire by September 30, 2021. The enforcement authorities have been advised to treat such documents valid till September 30. This will help citizens avail transport related services, while maintaining physical distancing, the ministry noted.

In October last year, there were changes in the Motor Vehicle Rules issued by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) as amendments in Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989. One of the changes was that motorists across India need not carry physical copies of their driver’s license or any other documents relating to their vehicles and instead, the government assigned a couple of online portals where motorists can maintain all their vehicle related documents that can be shown when requested.

All vehicular documents can be maintained on mParivahan and Digi-Locker. Moreover, the action undertaken by the authority on the violator would reflect on their digital report. This portal shall record the disqualification or revocation of the driving license to keep the behaviour of rash drivers in check, authorities had said.