No NOC requirement for driving license renewal / change of address

No.RT-11036/10/2019-MVL
Government of India
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
(MVL Section)

Transport Bhawan, 1,
Parliament street,
New Delhi-110001
February 28, 2019

To
1.The Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries, Department of Transport of all the states/Uts;
2.The Transport Commissions of all the States/Ut Administrations

Subject: No requirement of an NOC for the renewal/change of address in the Driving Licence

Madam/Sir,
The driving license issued by any licensing authority in any state is valid throughout India and the license-holders is authorized to drive the specified class or classes of vehicles as per the licence in terms of the provisions of the motor vehicles Act, 1988 or the or the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.

1. The practice of obtaining an NOC from the previous licencing authority was followed primarily with a view to checking the authority of the licence,as to whether it was indeed issued/endorsed by the previous authority and that the licences was not linked with any offence. This practice came to be adapted initially when the Diving Licences were issued in manual mode/regime and also subsequently during the decentralized operations of earlier off-line software versions of SARATHI. Now, with the current version of SARATHI Wherein all Driving Licenses are issued following a IT based application system and the details are verifiable from the database in an on-line mode, there is no need for seeking an NOC for verification of such details as per the provisions of the aforesaid Act or Rules.

2. It has been brought to the notice of this Ministry that many States are still sticking to the practice of obtaining NOC from the parent authority in both cases. i.e renewals and change of address of the driving licence. This not only caused disparity in the implementation process but has a potential of undue harassment to the applicant. In case, when a user moves from one place or State, which does not issue NOC to another place or State, which requires an NOC, the applications are rejected due to the lack of such NOC.

3. The SARATHI database contains the information of the driving licences issued by the states. Accordingly, it is advised that whenever an application for renewal or transfer of address is reserved the concerned competent authority may check the particulars online available in the SARATHI database Further, the details can also be validated using e-challan mobile application. This approach would not require the citizens to visit or approach the original Licencing Authority for getting NOC.

4. It is requested that all the Licensing Authorities be directed to stop forthwith and discontinue any old process of verification in manual mode and follow the online verification of the driving licenses for facilitation of the citizens

Yours faithfully,
sd/-
(Ramandeep Chowdhary)
Deputy Secretary to the Government of India
Tele: 23710213

Source: Confederation