by National e-Governance Division (NeGD), MeitY
DigiLocker is a Digital India initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), built and run by the National e-Governance Division (NeGD), an independent business division of Digital India Corporation. It launched in beta in February 2015 and went public on 1 July 2015. There is no company behind it, no paid tier and no advertising. The split between Issued Documents and Uploaded Documents is the thing worth understanding before you rely on it. Issued documents are fetched over an API directly from the originating authority — UIDAI for Aadhaar, the Income Tax Department for PAN, Parivahan for driving licence and vehicle RC, CBSE and state boards for marksheets, IRDAI-regulated insurers for policies. Under Rule 9A of the Information Technology (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries providing Digital Locker Facilities) Rules, 2016, these are deemed at par with the original physical document, so a traffic officer or a bank is obliged to accept them. Uploaded documents are the opposite: DigiLocker Drive accepts your own uploads at up to 10 MB per file (PDF, JPEG or PNG), but anything you upload yourself is a reference copy with no legal standing. DigiLocker also works as an identity layer rather than just a folder. It is one of the three pillars of MeriPehchaan, the National Single Sign-On launched in July 2022, so a DigiLocker account signs you into a large number of central and state government portals. A requester organisation can pull a document from your locker with your consent instead of asking for a photocopy. Scale is the strongest argument for it. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha on 29 July 2026, the Minister of State for Electronics and IT put DigiLocker at more than 71.66 crore registered users. Its own live dashboard reads 72.42 crore registered against 25.45 crore active — roughly two in three accounts are dormant. The Android app has 100M+ downloads and is actively maintained — version 9.4.1 shipped on 13 July 2026. The honest caveat is reliability, not concept. The app rates 4.2 on Google Play, but the dominant themes in recent reviews are unprompted logouts, Aadhaar re-verification loops, and issuers whose fetch endpoint simply fails. Coverage is uneven — several state boards and universities are absent or intermittently unavailable. Load is the other weak point: during the CBSE Class 10 results on 15 April 2026, DigiLocker and UMANG both threw OTP-generation and authentication failures as over 2 million students arrived at once.
4.2/5 on Google Play Store · Last verified 2026-07-31
Legally, no. Documents fetched into DigiLocker from the issuing authority are deemed at par with the original physical document under Rule 9A of the Information Technology (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries providing Digital Locker Facilities) Rules, 2016, so a driving licence or RC pulled from Parivahan is legally the same as the card in your wallet. In practice it is refused often — drivers have reported being fined or having a vehicle seized for not carrying hard copies, and colleges and passport offices frequently insist on a physical original. Courts have sided with the DigiLocker copy, but that is a slow remedy at a roadside check. Carry hard copies of anything you cannot afford to argue about. Note also that documents you upload yourself live in DigiLocker Drive as reference copies with no legal standing — only the Issued Documents section qualifies.
Yes, entirely. DigiLocker is a Digital India initiative of MeitY delivered by the National e-Governance Division — a government service rather than a product. There is no subscription and no advertising, and you can upload your own documents at up to 10 MB per file. One caveat worth knowing: the Terms of Use reserve an optional 'Premium Service' tier — extra storage, advanced sharing, enhanced support — for a fee. Nothing is charged today, but the hook is written into the terms.
This is the most common complaint about the app and it is not something you are doing wrong. Users report being signed out between sessions and forced to re-verify before any document opens. Setting a 6-digit security PIN and keeping the app updated helps, but there is no reliable fix from the user side. Because login is tied to your Aadhaar-linked mobile number with no email or alternate OTP route, treat DigiLocker as a convenience rather than your only copy — download the PDFs you genuinely depend on before you need them.
You can create an account through MeriPehchaan with a mobile number, but Aadhaar linkage is what unlocks the useful part — fetching issued documents from UIDAI, Income Tax, Parivahan, exam boards and insurers all runs on Aadhaar-based verification. The catch is that the OTP goes to the mobile number registered against your Aadhaar, so if that number is dead or has changed you will need to update it with UIDAI first.
Issuer coverage is genuinely uneven. Central boards such as CBSE and CISCE are well integrated, but several state boards and universities — Bihar Board, RBSE, JKBOSE and Anna University among others — are repeatedly reported as missing or returning 'Issuer service is currently unavailable'. Older years are often unavailable even where the board is integrated. If your board is not listed, DigiLocker cannot fetch it and you will need to approach the board directly.
Hand-picked videos to help you get started — tutorials, demos, and reviews.
How To Use DigiLocker: Everything You Need To Know About DigiLocker Features
DigiLocker Account Kaise Banaye | How to Use Digilocker App in Hindi
Digilocker app kaise use kare | digital driving licence | Guide
Digilocker Authenticator App Kya Hai & Kaise Use Kare?
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