You see a vehicle rashly brush against someone on the road but flee the scene in fear of getting berated for it. Even though you manage to note their registration number, you do not have any immediate recourse to know other details of the vehicle or the driver.
You eventually end up at your Regional Transport Office, go through mammoth documentation and bureaucratic procedure, after all of which you manage to find the details you were looking for.
Sounds familiar?
What if we told you that there’s another way how to find vehicle owner details by registration number? That’s right. You can find it with VAHAN.
VAHAN is a national vehicle registry which was launched back in 2011 by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre. As per the official website of VAHAN, it holds data of more than 25 crore motor vehicles, in respect to their registration certificates.
It was launched with the objective of collating all details related to motor vehicle registration certificates and driving licenses from the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) and District Transport Offices (DTOs) across India. As of 2019, it has collated these details from nearly 90% of such offices pan-India.
So, How to Find Vehicle Owner Details with Registration Number?
Now, without further hum and haw, let us get down to business.
Visit the official website of VAHAN and follow the step-by-step process mentioned below to find vehicle registration details online:
- Click on “Know your vehicle details” from the menu bar.
- In the next page, furnish the registration number of your vehicle, enter the verification code as shown there, and click on “Search Vehicle”.
And you are done! But what are the details you can find there? You can see all the details related to your motor vehicle as registered with your RTO.
VAHAN is designed to collate and produce vehicular information in accordance with individual requirements of all the Indian states and Union Territories. These details are also in tandem with the Motor Vehicles Act 1988.
You can find the following details in the VAHAN website upon entering your vehicle’s registration number:
- Registration date
- Chassis number (not mentioned in full)
- Engine number (not mentioned in full)
- Owner’s name
- Vehicle class
- Fuel type
- Model and manufacturer details
- Vehicular fitness duration
- PUC or Pollution Under Control Certificate number
- Motor Vehicle (MV) Tax validity
- Details of motor vehicle insurance
- Emission standards of the vehicle (Bharat Stage emission norms)
- Registration Certificate Status
- Name of the financier
The online vehicle search via number plate is applicable for all states such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Delhi, Goa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Assam, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Manipur, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Ladakh, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
Find Vehicle Registration Details with an SMS
Did you know you could also learn the details of a vehicle with a simple SMS?
Follow the steps mentioned below to find vehicular details by using a vehicle's registration number:
- Type VAHAN <space> vehicle’s registration number
- Send it to 7738299899
- So, the next time you need to know the details of a vehicle owner other than yourself, you simply need their vehicle’s registration number to be the next Sherlock Holmes.
What are the Scenarios where you need this Facility?
Did you ever get stopped by traffic police only to find that you are not carrying your vehicle’s documents on your person and pay a heavy fine for it?
You can put these worries in the past!
In a recent update, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways announced that individuals do not need to carry around the hardcopy of their vehicular documents. They can alternatively digitally save those in DigiLockers. As per such mandate, details saved in DigiLockers shall be recognised as legitimate, pan-India. However, there might be circumstances from hereon, when the traffic enforcement authorities will verify these details with VAHAN to prove their legitimacy.
Remember NOC? Which you will need to acquire for your vehicle when you move to another state or Union Territory for over a year?
With the popularisation of VAHAN, you do not need to carry a No Objection Certificate for your motor vehicle, as RTOs across India can access centralised data of your vehicular details.
These are two out of the multiple ways you can utilise this facility of knowing a vehicle’s details through its registration number.