DigiLocker is a government-run digital document service in India that lets residents hold officially issued records, such as driving licences, education certificates and tax documents, in a personal cloud account and share them electronically.
Why it matters
Paper copies are slow to verify and easy to forge. In DigiLocker, documents are pushed by the issuing department or institution, so a recipient can fetch the record directly from the source instead of trusting a photocopy. Under Indian rules, documents issued through the service are generally treated as valid equivalents of originals, though acceptance depends on the receiving organisation. Banks, employers and apps use it as part of onboarding and e-KYC flows.
Example
A lending app asks a user to "fetch from DigiLocker". The user logs in, approves a consent screen and selects a PAN record. The app receives the document and its issuer details through an API, rather than a photo upload, and can check that it came from the issuer.
Common mistakes
- Uploading a self-made scan and assuming it carries the same weight as an issued document. Only documents marked as issued are fetched from the source.
- Granting consent to more document types than a service needs.
- Forgetting the account is tied to a phone number and an ID, so losing access to the number can block login.
Rules vary by country; this entry is a definition only.
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