“Show it to Modi,” traffic police tells biker who showed documents on Digilocker app

A biker , who stored his documents in the DigiLocker was allegedly stopped by the cops in Allahabad and was asked to show the documents of the scooter he was riding. He was levied a fine of Rs. 5,900 as he showed his documents through the government’s DigiLocker app.

According to the biker’s post on Reddit, hwe was stopped on suspicion of riding a stolen scooter. Ishan was allegedly carrying DigiLocker version of Registration Certificate, Insurance certificate and photocopy of the Pollution Certification of the vehicle and showed the original driving license to the cops. The cops did not accept the digital form of the certificates and allegedly said “show it to Modi” – the man who kickstarted the Digital India reform and launched the application last year.

Ishan also alleges that the cops did not know how to use the mobile tablets that were supplied to them and when Ishan offered help, the police became angry. The DigiLocker has a feature through which any official can verify the documents uploaded in the locker. The cops later issued a challan for not showing the proper documents when demanded. A challan of Rs. 5,900 was issued to Ishan.

Ishan has put a picture of the Challan on the social networking site – Twitter

Cop in ALD,UP refused 2 accept DigiLocker docs as proof.Instead gave 5900e-challan, saying ‘yeh App Modi ko dikha’. @timesofindia pic.twitter.com/higIpIJb64

— ishan singhal (@ishan276) November 1, 2017

What is the legality of DigiLocker in India?

According to the official website of the DigiLocker, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is a partner of the application and certificates like Driving License and Registration Certificates can be stored digitally in the mobile phone. Below are the points quoted from the DigiLocker

Benefits of this integration –

Paperless Services: Digital driving license and vehicle registration will minimize the use of physical documents.

Authentic Records: Citizens can share the authentic digital certificates directly from the data source with other departments as identity and address proof resulting in a reduction  of administrative overhead.

Spot Verification: The digital RC and DL in a DigiLocker account can be spot verified for authenticity either by validating the Digital Signature of MoRTH on the PDF copy of the document or by scanning the QR code on digital documents by using the QR scan facility on DigiLocker mobile app.

Kerala High Court has said otherwise

A ruling by Kerala High Court in September this year, the driving license has to be produced in original and not in any other form. The court also said that the motorists without the original license can be jailed for up to 3 months.

The Article 130 of the Motor Vehicle Act says that all the documents need to be carried in the original form. However, according to the IT Act 2000, the DigiLocker documents are also valid.

It is the conflict between two acts that has created such a situation.

Via: Reddit, Image: RushLane