Madras High Court declines interim stay on Tamil Nadu's digital licence rollout

The Madras High Court on Friday declined to grant an interim stay on the Tamil Nadu government's decision to move the issuance of driving licences and motor vehicle registration certificates from physical smart cards to digital mode.

The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan accepted Advocate General Vijay Narayan's request for time to file detailed counter affidavits to three writ petitions challenging the transition, and chose not to interfere with the rollout for now.

The petitions were filed by Force Identification Private Limited, a Bengaluru-based firm that prints and supplies secure cards and provides identity and allied technology solutions to government and private organisations, along with two other petitioners.

Opposing their plea for an interim stay, the Advocate General submitted that the proposed electronic system was being introduced in the interest of the public at large and to remove the need for applicants to approach touts at Regional Transport Offices. He said the change would also benefit people financially, since the roughly ₹250 currently collected for printing and issuing smart cards would no longer be charged.

Under the new arrangement, the Advocate General told the court, digital driving licences and registration certificates can be stored on mobile phones. Those who want a physical copy may take a printout of the digital document and laminate it at any e-seva centre, which he said had been set up in every village.

Unlike smart cards carrying a microchip, the digital documents will bear QR codes. Traffic police personnel can scan these codes to record road traffic violations, with the full history of offences viewable through the same process, the court was told.

The Advocate General also said six states, including Kerala, Assam and Rajasthan, had already shifted to digital issuance of driving licences and vehicle registration certificates, making Tamil Nadu the seventh to do so. He submitted that the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and the statutory rules framed under it permit such a transition, and urged the court to allow the state time to file its detailed response before any interim order was passed.