Is your driving license expiring? You may don’t need to worry; here’s why

If your driving license is about to expire, you don’t need to worry much. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has recently issued a statement to extend the validity of all automobile documents till June 2021. The MoRTH took this decision in the wake of the rising Covid-19 cases across the country. 

All the documents eligible under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, will get an extension until June 2021. Documents such as vehicle fitness, permit, driving licence, registration, etc., that have expired since February 1, 2020, or expired by March 31, 2021, can be renewed. 

In its advisory, the road ministry said, “The transport ministry advised that the validity of the documents that have expired since February 1, the same may be treated to be valid till June 30, 2021.” 

The ministry also notified enforcement authorities, advising them to treat such documents as valid till June 30, 2021. “This will help out citizens in availing transport-related services,” the notification added. It also said that the extension will protect vehicle owners and drivers from the harassment of law enforcement authorities. 

The statement from the ministry read, “Taking into consideration the grim situation still continuing due to conditions for prevention of COVID-19 across the country, it is advised that validity of all the vehicle documents whose extension of validity could not be, or was not likely to be granted due to lockdown and/or COVID-19 and which had expired since 1st of Feb, 2020 or would expire by 30th June 2021, the same may be treated valid till 30th June 2021.” 

Previously, the Indian government had extended the validity of all these documents till March 30, 2020. The Centre took the step to provide a sigh of relief to citizens, who were not able to renew their documents on time due to the pandemic-led restrictions aimed at reducing the footfall at the transport authority offices across the country. The extension was then pushed till June 9, 2020, August 9, 2020, December 27, 2020, February 1, 2021, and finally to March 31.