On 25th September 2020, Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways (MoRTH) published a Gazette notification, which the Central Government further amends the regulations under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989. These rules may be called the Central Motor Vehicles (Eleventh Amendment) Rules, 2020 and have come into effect from 1st October 2020.
Under 139 and 139A CMVR, The Driver or conductor of the motor vehicle can produce the documents of the vehicle in physical or electronic form, as per the availability. The driver can also download the documents from the portal, on-demand by any police officer in uniform or any other officer, authorised by the State Government. The documents include the driving licence, registration certificate, insurance, Pollution Under Check (PUC) certificates, fitness and permits. If any or all documents are not in possession, in any form, the driver can produce the duly attested documents in person or registered post to the officer who demanded the documents, within fifteen days from the date of demand.
Furthermore, if the documents demanded by the police officer or any other officer authorised by the State Government are verified to be valid and in force, even in the electronic format, such documents shall not be demanded again for their (re)-inspection, in the physical form, even when there is an offence made and necessitates the seizure of such documents. The seizure in such cases must be made electronically on the portal. A receipt acknowledging such seizure, in physical or electronic form shall also be issued by the police officer of the authorised personnel. Upon demanding documents for inspection date and time stamp of inspection and identity of the police officer in uniform or any other officer authorised by the State Government shall be recorded on the Portal.
Another notification in the recent past also states that all documents related to Motor vehicle Act, 1988 and Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 including the validity of fitness, permit of all types, driving license, registration or any other document related to the MVA 1988 and CMVR 1989 which had expired since 1st February 2020, will stand valid till the 30th of September 2020 in lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic.