The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has proposed changes to India’s driving licence rules that would raise the safe-driving tutorial pass mark from 60% to 75%, introduce a 15-day deadline for updating certain licence details and waive fees for selected online services completed through Aadhaar authentication. The proposals are part of draft amendments to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules and are not yet final.
The draft notification was published late Wednesday and proposes changes across the application and update process for driving licences. The revised framework would include a stricter qualifying threshold for the safe-driving tutorial assessment, a minimum duration for the tutorial, new deadlines for changes to licence information and an altered list of accepted identity and address documents.
Under the proposed driving licence new rules, applicants would need to score at least 75% in the safe-driving tutorial assessment, compared with the existing proposed threshold of 60%. The tutorial would also have to run for a minimum of 30 minutes. The higher qualifying score is intended to make the assessment more stringent and require applicants to demonstrate a stronger understanding of safe-driving practices.
The draft also proposes a simplified process for several licence-related services. Applicants seeking to update details such as their name or address could face a specified deadline of 15 days under the proposed framework. The source report does not establish whether the deadline would apply uniformly to all changes or set out the consequences of missing it.
Another proposed change concerns online services accessed through Aadhaar authentication. Fees may be waived for select services when applicants use the Aadhaar-linked process, although the draft proposals, as reported, do not specify every service that would qualify for the waiver. The changes could reduce the cost of some digital transactions while shifting more licence-related work towards online channels.
The amendments would also revise the documents accepted for identity and address verification. The proposed changes are intended to simplify applications, but the final list of documents and the exact procedure will depend on the government’s final notification. Until that notification is issued, existing driving licence rules remain in force.
The Ministry has not yet brought the proposed changes into effect. The draft amendments will take effect only after the government completes the notification process and issues final rules. Applicants and licensing authorities will need to follow the final version for the revised pass mark, update deadlines, document requirements and any fee waivers to become operational.
