Your car's papers: RC, insurance, PUC, FASTag

A car carries four papers with four different clocks. The RC runs for years, the insurance for the term on its policy, the PUC for the period printed on it, and the FASTag for as long as it works. Each one lapses quietly, and you usually find out at a checkpoint or a toll booth.

This is when each runs out, where the date is written, and what the Motor Vehicles Act says happens if it has.

Four papers, at a glance

The RC

Section 41(7) of the Motor Vehicles Act makes a certificate of registration valid for fifteen years from the date it was issued, or for such period as the Central Government prescribes, and renewable after that.¹ For a private car bought new, that is a date far enough away to forget completely — which is why it belongs on a list.

The insurance

Driving a vehicle without the insurance the Act requires is an offence under Section 196: for a first offence, imprisonment of up to three months, a fine of two thousand rupees, or both; for a later one, up to three months, a fine of four thousand rupees, or both.² The policy's end date is on its schedule, and a renewal that is a day late is still a lapse.

The PUC certificate

Under Rule 115(7) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, once a year has passed from the date a vehicle was first registered, it must carry a valid Pollution Under Control certificate.⁴ How long each certificate lasts has been changed by amendment, and a further change has been proposed, so go by the end date printed on yours rather than by what anyone remembers.

Section 190(2) of the Act punishes driving a vehicle that violates the prescribed standards on air pollution: for a first offence, up to three months or a fine of up to ten thousand rupees, or both, and disqualification from holding a licence for three months.³ The PUC certificate is how a vehicle shows it meets those standards.

Four papers, four clocks — and each lapses without telling you.

The FASTag

Since midnight of 15–16 February 2021, every lane at a fee plaza on a National Highway has been a FASTag lane.⁵ Under the fee rules as amended in 2025, a vehicle without a valid, working FASTag is charged twice the fee in cash, or 1.25 times if it pays by UPI.⁶ A FASTag does not expire the way a certificate does; what matters is that it is valid and working when you reach the plaza.

Keeping them in one place

Four papers is manageable. Four papers per vehicle in a family with two or three is where dates slip. Keep a copy of each with its end date, give each vehicle one person who looks after it, and let the reminders come to that person.