Key Takeaways
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Aditi bought her hatchback second-hand about three years ago, and it has done the school run in Ahmedabad every weekday since. Last week she got an SMS reminding her that her policy was about to expire, with a payment link attached. The number was not one she recognised, and she has read enough about fake policies to be wary of paying a stranger.
So she is caught between two things that both feel risky. Paying the wrong person means losing money and still driving uninsured. Ignoring the message means letting cover run out on a car her family depends on.
What she needs first is simple. She needs to know who her insurer is and when the policy ends, from a source that has nothing to do with whoever sent that message. That takes about two minutes and costs nothing, and it is where this guide starts.
Checking your car insurance with just the number plate
Open parivahan.gov.in , go to Know Vehicle Details, and enter your registration number. The record will show your insurer’s name and the date your policy ends.
You do not need your policy number, you do not need to log in to your insurer, and nothing is charged for the search. The registration number on your number plate is enough.
This is the quickest answer, and for most people it settles the immediate worry. Three other routes exist and each one suits a different situation, which the next few sections cover.
One thing to keep in mind as you go. A record showing a live policy proves that cover exists. It says very little about what that cover includes, and that gap matters more than most owners realise.
Why letting cover lapse costs far more than the fine
Third party cover is compulsory on every car in India, and the fine is the cheapest part of getting it wrong.
Under the Motor Vehicles Act, driving without valid cover costs ₹2,000 for a first offence and ₹4,000 if it happens again. Up to three months in prison is also possible. That is the part people know about. The costs that follow a lapse are usually much larger.
A policy that has expired pays nothing at all. If your cover ran out on Tuesday and you have an accident on Wednesday, the repairs to your own car are yours to fund. So is anything you owe the other party, and liability for injury or death has no upper limit under Indian motor law. A single serious claim can run well past anything you would have spent on a premium.
Then there is the No Claim Bonus. Five claim-free years earn you half off the own damage portion of your premium, which is a meaningful sum on most cars. You keep it if you renew within 90 days of expiry. Past that window it resets to zero no matter how carefully you have driven, and you start building it again from scratch.
There is also a practical trap at the end of a lapse. Once cover has run out, most insurers want to inspect the car before own damage cover restarts, and you are not supposed to drive it until that happens. Owners who leave renewal until the policy has already expired often find themselves arranging an inspection for a car they cannot legally move.
The four ways to check, and when each one helps
Three of these routes confirm that a policy exists. Only your insurer’s own records tell you what it covers.
Route | What you need | What it tells you | When to use it |
|---|---|---|---|
Parivahan Sewa | Registration number | Insurer name, policy end date, vehicle details | The fastest check, and the only one that works for a car that is not yours |
mParivahan app | Registration number, mobile number | The same information, on your phone | At the roadside, at a dealership, or anywhere away from a computer |
Your insurer’s website or app | Registered mobile number or policy number | Cover type, add-ons, Insured Declared Value, deductible, No Claim Bonus, and the policy document itself | Whenever you need to know what you are covered for, rather than only whether you are covered |
Your Regional Transport Office | Registration number and the registration certificate | The registration record, in person | A record that is missing or wrong online |
Parivahan Sewa
Parivahan Sewa is run by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and it is the source most other websites are quietly reading from. Open parivahan.gov.in and look under the Informational Services menu, where you will find Know Vehicle Details in the right-hand column. That takes you to a page called License and Registration Details, which offers two cards. The one you want is Know your Vehicle Details, described on the page as a way to find out basic details about any supplied vehicle number.
From there you enter the registration number and the verification code shown on screen. The result includes the insurer’s name and the date the policy expires, alongside the registration details.
Government portals do get reorganised from time to time, so follow the labels you see rather than a fixed sequence of clicks.
The mParivahan app
mParivahan is the ministry’s own app and it does the same job from your phone. Install it, sign in with your mobile number, and search the registration number. The insurance validity appears with the rest of the vehicle details.
It is the more useful of the two when you are standing next to a car rather than sitting at a desk.
Your insurer’s website or app
This is the route that answers the question most owners care about, and it is the one that gets skipped.
Sign in to your insurer’s site or app with your registered mobile number and the one-time password it sends you, or with your policy number if you have it. Open the policy and you can read your cover type, your Insured Declared Value, your deductible, every add-on sitting on the schedule and your current No Claim Bonus. The policy document downloads from the same screen, which also solves the problem of never being able to find it in your email.
Your Regional Transport Office
Going in person is worth it in two situations. One is a record that shows details you believe are wrong. The other is no record at all for a car you know is registered.
Take the registration certificate and the registration number with you. An RTO can correct its own registration record. It cannot correct anything that belongs to your insurer, so a policy error still has to go back to the insurance company.
A note on the Insurance Information Bureau
A lot of articles, including some published by insurers, tell car owners to look up their policy on the Insurance Information Bureau portal. The Bureau’s own website states that it works with IRDAI, insurers and government agencies. It asks people not to use its contact form for personal queries.
In other words, it is not built as a self-service tool for individual car owners. If someone has sent you there and you got nowhere, that is why. Parivahan Sewa and your own insurer are the routes that are meant for you.
What the government record shows and what it hides
The record answers a legal question. Your policy schedule answers the question that matters when something goes wrong.
The record tells you | Only your policy schedule tells you |
|---|---|
Who your insurer is | Whether you hold comprehensive, standalone own damage or third party cover |
When the policy ends | Your Insured Declared Value, which is the most any own damage claim can pay |
That a policy exists against that number | Your deductible, which comes out of every claim |
The vehicle’s registration details | Which add-ons you hold, and which quietly dropped off at the last renewal |
Your accumulated No Claim Bonus | |
Whether a claim is already open on the policy |
The practical difference is easy to miss. Someone who checks Parivahan Sewa, sees a live policy and stops there has confirmed that a traffic policeman will have nothing to say to them. They have not confirmed that a monsoon flood claim will be paid, or that depreciation on replaced parts will be waived.
Those things are decided by what is written on the policy schedule, and nowhere else. If you take one action after reading this, open your insurer’s app and read your own schedule properly. The expiry date is the least interesting line on it.
When your policy and the record disagree
A mismatch usually means the record is behind, rather than that something has gone wrong.
The commonest reason is simple timing. Insurers report policy data after a policy is issued, so a renewal you completed last week can be perfectly valid while the public record still shows the old one. If you have the policy document and a payment confirmation, you are insured. Keep a copy on your phone until the record catches up.
Changing insurer has the same effect. The new policy takes a while to work through, and in the meantime the record may still show the company you left.
A third reason confuses more people than the other two put together. It comes down to new cars being sold with cover on two different clocks. A new private car is issued third party cover lasting three years, while own damage cover is usually annual. The two therefore end on different dates, and a record quoting one of them can look wrong against a policy document quoting the other. Nothing has gone wrong here, although it is worth knowing which of the two is the one about to expire.
The one case that is a genuine error is a registration number mistyped when the policy was issued. The policy exists, but it is not attached to your car in any record. Only the insurer can fix that, by endorsing the correction onto the policy.
What to do if the check shows something you did not expect
What you saw | What it usually means | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|
Nothing at all | A typing error, or incomplete data for that registering office | Try again without spaces or hyphens, then check your insurer’s app. Your cover may be fine even when the public record is not |
A policy that ended recently | Cover has lapsed, or a renewal has not reached the record | Look for a renewal confirmation in your email or your insurer’s app. If there is none, you are uninsured and should not drive |
A policy that ended more than 90 days ago | Cover has lapsed and the No Claim Bonus has gone | Renew, and expect an inspection before own damage cover restarts. Arrange it where the car is parked |
An insurer you do not recognise | You switched at the last renewal, or the record is stale | Check your own policy document. If that is current, the record will catch up |
The wrong vehicle details | A data error at registration or at issuance | Take the registration certificate to your RTO for a registration error, and go to your insurer for a policy error |
A live policy, but you cannot remember what it covers | Nothing is wrong, you have simply checked the wrong source | Open your insurer’s app and read the schedule |
Aditi’s search came back with a policy ending in eleven days, from an insurer whose name matched the one she remembered renewing with. That told her two useful things at once. Her cover was real and still running, and the SMS asking her to pay a stranger had nothing to do with it.
Eleven days was also enough time to renew properly, keep her No Claim Bonus and avoid an inspection. A fortnight later, all three would have been in doubt.
How to spot a fake policy before you pay for it
A convincing document proves nothing on its own, so check the policy against the insurer’s own records before you part with money.
Fake motor policies are a real problem in India. They are usually sold cheaply by someone who issues a smart-looking document and never places the risk with any insurance company. The owner finds out only when a claim is rejected.
The good news is that they are not hard to catch if you know where to look.
Look for the UIN on the document. Every insurance product approved in India carries a Unique Identification Number, and it appears on the policy. Zurich Kotak’s private car product, Car Secure, carries UIN IRDAN152RP0006V04201516. A document without a UIN anywhere on it is not a policy.
Check the insurer’s registration number. Genuine insurers state their registration with IRDAI on their documents. Zurich Kotak’s is 152.
Verify it with the insurer, not in the PDF. Forging a document is easy. Getting a fake entry into an insurer’s database is not. Sign in to the insurer’s app, or call them, and ask them to confirm the policy number against your registration number.
See who the money went to. A premium paid into a personal account rather than to the insurance company is the clearest warning sign there is.
Check the public record later. A genuine policy reaches Parivahan Sewa in time. One that never appears there was probably never placed at all.
If anything here does not hold up, treat the car as uninsured and buy cover properly before you drive it again.
Checking the insurance before you buy a used car
The seller’s policy tells you something about how the car has been looked after, and it decides what paperwork lands on you in your first month.
Start by asking for the policy document and reading the name on it, which should match both the seller and the registration certificate. A policy in somebody else’s name is a question worth asking before any money changes hands.
Then check the registration number yourself on Parivahan Sewa rather than relying on the document you were handed. Read the cover type as carefully as the dates. A seller who describes a car as fully insured may be holding third party cover alone, which protects nothing of yours. It is also worth asking whether any claim is currently open, since that complicates the transfer.
The transfer itself is worth planning before you pay rather than after. Ownership moves across on Forms 29 and 30, and Form 28, the no objection certificate, is additionally needed when the car is moving into a different registering office’s jurisdiction. Some states ask for it even on a local transfer, so confirm with your own RTO rather than assuming.
The insurance policy has to be transferred into your name as well, and the No Claim Bonus does not travel with the car. It belongs to the previous owner, so expect to start your own from scratch.
Checking another car’s insurance after an accident
If someone else hits your car, their insurer is the one who pays for it, and their number plate is all you need to find out who that is.
Enter the other vehicle’s registration number on Parivahan Sewa and the record will return the insurer’s name and the policy validity. That is often the single most useful thing you can establish in the hours after a collision, particularly if the other driver is reluctant to share details.
Photographing the number plate at the scene is worth more than exchanging phone numbers, because a plate cannot be given to you incorrectly. You will also need to file a First Information Report. A third party claim requires it, and your own insurer will ask for it too if you end up claiming.
It is sensible to report the incident to your own insurer early, even if you are expecting the other driver’s company to pay. Reporting is not the same as claiming, and it protects you if their cover turns out to have lapsed.
The habits that leave owners uninsured
Most lapses come from a handful of reasonable-sounding assumptions, and the first one on this list causes more trouble than the rest combined.
Believing a motor policy has a grace period. It does not. Cover ends at the time printed on the policy. The 90 days people are thinking of is the window for keeping your No Claim Bonus at renewal. That is a discount on your next premium rather than cover for your car. Driving the day after expiry is driving uninsured.
Checking only the expiry date. The most common version of a status check that achieves very little.
Assuming the renewal went through because the money left the account. Payments do sometimes succeed while issuance fails. The policy document arriving is your confirmation, not the debit.
Letting the registered mobile number go out of date. Renewal reminders, one-time passwords and claim updates all go there, so an old number means a renewal you never hear about.
Leaving renewal until the policy has already expired. That usually triggers an inspection, and the car is not supposed to be driven to it.
Treating long-term third party cover as full cover. Three years of third party cover on a new car protects other people. Your own car depends on the own damage portion, which may be annual and may already have run out.
Making sure your cover never lapses
A few small habits remove the problem almost entirely.
Put a reminder in your phone 30 days before expiry rather than three. That leaves room for a failed payment.
Read the policy schedule at every renewal. Add-ons can drop off and the Insured Declared Value changes each year.
Keep your registered mobile number and email current with your insurer.
Save the policy document to your phone instead of leaving it in your email. A digital copy is perfectly valid on the road.
Finish the renewal before the expiry date rather than on it.
If a dealer arranged the cover for you, confirm it independently on the insurer’s app in your first month.
What to do next
Aditi knows where she stands now. Her cover is real, it ends in eleven days, and the message asking her to pay had nothing to do with her insurer.
The part worth carrying forward is the distinction between the two checks. Parivahan Sewa answers a legal question, which is whether a policy exists against your car. Your policy schedule answers an ownership question, which is what happens if something goes wrong on the way to Vadodara.
Most owners do the first and assume it has covered the second. Her car is seven years old now, its Insured Declared Value has fallen every year, and the depreciation deducted on replaced parts has been rising over the same period. Whether that changes what she buys at this renewal is her call, and she can only make it by reading the schedule rather than the record.
Check the portal when you want to know you are legal. Open your schedule when you want to know you are protected. The second one takes about as long as the first, and it is the one that decides what you get paid.
Frequently asked questions
How can I check if my car insurance is valid using only the vehicle number?
Enter the registration number on parivahan.gov.in under Know Vehicle Details, or search it in the mParivahan app. Both return your insurer’s name and the policy end date without needing a policy number.
How do I check my car insurance expiry date on Parivahan or mParivahan?
On the website, open the Informational Services menu, choose Know Vehicle Details, then pick the Know your Vehicle Details card and enter your registration number with the verification code. On the app, sign in with your mobile number and search the registration number.
Is there a fee for checking car insurance status?
No. The government portals and insurer apps are free for a status check. You only pay when you buy or renew a policy.
Can I check the insurance status of a car that is not mine?
Yes. A registration number is all Parivahan Sewa needs, which is what makes it useful after an accident or when you are looking at a used car.
What does it mean if the portal shows no record for my car?
Usually a typing error, or a policy issued so recently that it has not reached the record yet. Occasionally it means the policy was issued against a wrongly entered registration number. Check your insurer’s app first, because your cover may be valid even when the record is blank.
My policy is live but the portal says it has expired. Am I insured?
Yes, provided you have a current policy document and a payment confirmation. Records update after a policy is issued rather than at the same moment, so a recent renewal takes time to appear.
How do I find my policy number if I have lost the policy copy?
Your insurer can retrieve it against your registered mobile number. For a Zurich Kotak policy, sign in at zurichkotak.com or call 1800 2120, and you can download a fresh copy at the same time.
How do I tell whether I have third party or comprehensive cover?
Not from the public record, which does not separate them reliably. Open your insurer’s app or your policy document. A comprehensive policy will show an Insured Declared Value against the vehicle, and a third party policy will not, because it covers nothing of yours.
Does the record show my add-ons and my No Claim Bonus?
No. Your add-ons, Insured Declared Value, deductible and No Claim Bonus all sit on your policy schedule, which comes from your insurer rather than from a government portal.
Is a digital copy of my insurance valid if the police stop me?
Yes. A digital policy copy is accepted, which is a good reason to keep one on your phone rather than relying on finding paper in the glovebox.
What should I do if my car insurance has expired?
Stop driving the car and renew before you move it. If the lapse is under 90 days your No Claim Bonus survives, and past that it resets to zero. Expect an inspection before own damage cover restarts, and arrange for it to happen where the car is parked.
How often should I check my insurance status?
Once a year is plenty, timed about a month before renewal. The more valuable habit is reading your policy schedule each time you renew, because that is where your cover quietly changes.
Is third party insurance enough to keep me legal?
Legally, yes. Third party cover is the compulsory minimum. It pays nothing towards damage to your own car, so being legal and being protected are two very different positions.
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