A driving licence is almost like your identity cards authenticating your Indian citizenship. A licence holder is supposed to have complete knowledge of traffic rules and master the vehicle operations. If you are caught driving motorized vehicles without a valid licence you might have to pay a heavy fine and even a year of imprisonment. Following we explain all types of driving licence in India and also how to check the driving licence status.
Learner’s Licence
Any person who applies for a driving licence needs to receive a learner’s licence first. Having a learner’s licence means you have learnt the basic driving skills. After the learner’s licence is issued, it is now valid for six months from the date. You can apply for the permanent driving licence only after a month from the date of issuance of the learner’s licence.
To have a learner’s licence one has to abide by the following agreements:
- He or she must learn to drive and operate the specific type of vehicle from a permanent driving licence holder.
- He or she needs to show the ‘L’ sign in red colour. It needs to be placed properly so that it can easily be noticed.
- The individual needs to have proper knowledge of traffic rules and road signs.
- The holder of a learner’s licence for commercial vehicles must complete his or her training from driving institutions run by the government.
Permanent Driving Licence for Private Vehicles
To get this licence one needs to satisfy the following stipulations:
- His or her age must be 18 or above.
- Must pass the driving test from a motor driving institution.
- Must have the learner’s licence.
This kind of licence is somewhat special, generally known as smartcards. There’s a chip inside that contains the whole biometric information of the holder. On the card, the name, age, permanent address and his or her picture is printed. It also mentions the exact kind of vehicles to which the holder is licenced.
Commercial Vehicles Permanent Driving Licence
Those who drive commercial vehicles must have this licence. Commercial vehicles mean either a public transport vehicle like bus, taxi, etc. or those carrying goods like trucks, tankers, etc. However, one cannot get a licence if he has not passed the eighth class in school. Applicants have to have specialised training in heavy vehicle driving. The training must be completed by government driving schools. Keeping in mind the safety of citizens, the government has imposed very strict rules in giving these kinds of licences.
International Driving Permit
This kind of driving licence is required when an Indian has to drive their personal or rented vehicles in foreign countries. The driver applying for an international driving permit must already have a permanent driving licence. It hardly takes four to five days to get the licence. Once issued, the licence is valid for one year from the date. The licence is printed in multiple languages for the foreign authorities to verify. In fact, the document is sometimes used as legal identity proof while going abroad. And if unfortunately, an accident occurs on a foreign road, an international driving permit is needed to claim insurance.
How to check driving licence status
You can check the driving licence status offline by visiting the Regional Transport Office (RTO). However, if you have successfully submitted the driving licence application, you don’t need to. Here we have explained how to check the learner’s driving licence status online. However, the driving licence status is available after one month from the date of application.
- Go to the official website of Parivahan Sewa, https://parivahan.gov.in/parivahan/
- Click on “Driving licence related services”.
- Select your state.
- Select “Application Status”.
- Enter “Application number”.
- Enter “Date of Birth”.
- Enter “Captcha Code”.
- The driving licence status will pop up within a few seconds.
There are also third-party sites where you can get relevant information about your driving license status.
However, with the progress in digitised systems, our government is working on websites to make them more reliable and efficient, so that people find it easy to apply and check their driving licence status online from wherever they want to.
