Countries can turn down India's intl driving licence

NEW DELHI: The Centre got a surprise recently when a senior United Nations official pointed out that other countries were not legally obliged to recognise the international driving licences issued by the transport authorities here. For, India has not yet signed an umbrella UN agreement under which licences issued by the signing member nations would be valid across all countries.

Eva Molnar, director of transport division of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), said, “India was a contracting part to the 1948 UN convention on road traffic, but it is yet to sign the 1968 agreement on it.” This means that other countries are not legally bound to accept the international driving licences issued by Indian authorities. “Once India signs the agreement , it has to follow certain standards,’’ she told TOI.

Molnar, however, added that they are not aware of how many people obtaining these licences are actually using them to drive in foreign countries. ‘‘ Other countries might be accepting these licences only as a practice, but they can term them invalid in their land,’’ she said.