In order to drive a motor car / vehicle in a public place one must possess a valid driving licence issued by the Licencing Authority. It is illegal to drive a motor car without having an effective driving licence and similarly no person shall drive a Transport Vehicle in a public place unless his driving licence specifically entitles him so to do.

The District Transport Officer’s of various districts is the competent authority to issue driving licence in Assam.

For applying for a licence one must be 18 (eighteen) years of age and for driving a transport vehicle one must be 21 (twenty one) years of age. But a person attaining the age of 16 (sixteen) years can drive a motor cycle with engine capacity not exceeding 50CC in a public place.

1. Learner’s Licence..The first step to driving a motor vehicle is to obtain a ‘Learner’s Licence’. For obtain a learner licence one have to apply to the licencing authority of his jurisdiction where the applicant resides or carries business. Learner’s Licence is a purely temporary one valid for 6 (six) months only and it is issued to an applicant to learn how to drive.

(A) Application for Learner’s Licence :For obtaining a Learner’s Licence you have to apply to the licence authority or District Transport Officer, in whose jurisdiction, the applicant resides, with Form No. 2.

(B) Documents required for application : The documents required along with the learner’s licence application Form No. 2 are mentioned as follows:

∗Ration Card
∗Electoral Roll
∗Life Insurance Policy
∗Pay Slip issued by any State or Central Govt. body
∗Self swearing affidavit by an applicant before an Executive Magistrate or a 1st Class Judicial Magistrate or a Notary Public as evidence of address.

For proof of age:

∗Birth Certificate
∗School Certificate
∗Certificate granted by a registered Medical practitioner not below the rank of a Civil Surgeon, as to the age of the applicant.
∗Pay Slip issued by any State or Central Govt. body

Test for learner’s licence:Applicant of a learner licence shall have to present himself before the licensing authority for a preliminary test. The test will be conducted by the Inspector of Motor Vehicles and the applicant has to satisfy the Motor Vehicle Inspector with adequate knowledge of traffic signs and signals and rules of the road regulations. The applicants who are already having a driving licence are exempted from applying the preliminary test in case of additional endorsement of new class of vehicle

Validity of a Learner’s Licence:Learner’s licence are valid for a period of 6 (six) months. The holder of a learner’s licence must drive a car with prominently display the letter ‘L’ at the front and rear of the car and he must be accompanied by a permanent licence holder at the time of driving.

2. Driving Licence: ..The applicant who has held a valid learner’s licence for a period of at least 30 days or within 180 days from the date of issuance of learner’s licence can apply for the permanent driving licence.

Documents required for Driving Licence : Application for a permanent driving licence shall be made in Form – 4 and shall have to be accompanied by the following documents:

∗Your valid learner’s licence
∗Three copies of recent passport size photo
∗Proof of age and residence
∗In case of Transport Vehicle certificate in Form – 5 issued by a driving training school/establishment ∗In case of endorsements of categories your original licence ∗Police verification

Validity of a driving licence:Generally a licence is valid for 20 years from the date of issue or till you turn 50 years of age which ever is earlier. But the driving licence issued for Transport Vehicle will be valid for 3 (three) years.