Registrar manual
A registrar is the official of an institution who enrols other officials' phones in person and keeps the institution's roster. Every registration and revocation the registrar makes is signed with the registrar's own phone key and recorded on the ledger as theirs. Each institution has its own registrars:
| Institution | Registrar works in | Also in the Registrar section |
|---|---|---|
| A state's police | The police app | Station profiles, duty rosters, the CCTNS check, releasing CCTNS FIR numbers held by mistake |
| The judiciary (the High Court) | The Court app | Court profiles: holidays, hearing times, station names, the eCourts code. A court's central project coordinator (CPC) keeps these too. |
| The forensic laboratories | The lab app | The laboratories' staff roster |
When a phone's key holds the REGISTRAR role, the app opens on the Registrar section, with the tabs Desk, Officials, Requests and Profile. A registrar sees no complaints, cases or exhibits.
Before you start
- Your own phone's key signs everything you do. Keep your phone and your app PIN to yourself.
- You cannot enrol your own phone, and no registrar can give another the registrar role. Only your institution's MSP administrator can create a registrar key. You set up the app like any official; the administrator registers the key your enrolment names, and the Registrar section opens with your first session.
- Keep the official's phone and yours side by side at the desk. You will compare codes from one to the other.
WARNING
Never enrol anyone remotely, from a photo, a screenshot or over a call. The code on the official's phone names the key that will act for them. Scan it only from the screen of the phone the official is holding in front of you.
Enrol an official
1. The official prepares their phone
The official installs the app, types their service ID (police), staff code (laboratory) or JO code (court), allows phone and SMS access and checks their SIM. Their phone then shows a QR code with an 8-character code under it, valid for 24 hours, and a 16-character key code in four groups.
2. Open the enrolment
On the Desk, tap Scan the code on the officer's phone and hold their phone so the code fills the frame. If the camera cannot read it, type the 8 characters and tap Find. You will then compare the key code on both phones before signing.
3. Read the enrolment
| What it shows | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Roster record: name, ID, rank, posting, status, expected roles, masked mobile, HR number | "Not on the roster": do not approve. Reject it, or add the official to the roster first. "On leave", "Suspended" or "Left the service": approve only if the roster is out of date, and correct the roster too. |
| The phone: key code, whether the key is proved to be in secure hardware, the app check, the phone model | "The app check on this phone failed": the app or phone may have been changed. Do not approve unless your IT security cell has checked the phone. "Nothing proves that the key is in the phone's secure hardware": prefer a phone and app version that prove it. |
| SIM check: risk level, the last SMS check, signals such as "Official SIM taken out" | A signal for you to weigh. It never approves or refuses anyone by itself. |
4. Check the official in person
- Look at the person and their service ID card. The face and name must match the person, and the ID on the card must match the screen.
- Choose how you established who they are: the service ID card, the photo on their HR record, or you know them personally.
- Check that the phone in their hand is the one showing the code, and that it is theirs.
- If they are replacing a phone, ask where the old one is. A lost or stolen phone must also be revoked.
- Tick that you have seen them in person and that the card is theirs.
If something does not match, tap Reject, choose why, and add a note. Nothing is written to the ledger, and their phone shows that the enrolment was not approved.
5. Approve
Choose:
- Roles, up to four. For police: duty officer, station house officer, investigating officer, supervising officer, malkhana in-charge, constable. For the judiciary: magistrate, court staff, High Court registry, auditor (reads, signs nothing). For laboratories: reception or analyst. The registrar role is never offered.
- Designation, from the registry's list. A laboratory analyst must have a designation that qualifies under BNSS s.329(4) to seal reports.
- Station, courts, or laboratory division. The roster's posting is chosen for you.
- Validity: 6 months, 1 year or 2 years, never longer than the registry allows.
- Whether the new key replaces one of the official's other keys (a new phone, transfer or promotion).
Tap Approve. The official's phone shows what you approved, and the official confirms it is right. Only then does their phone prove it holds its key. If they say something is wrong, change the approval and approve again.
6. Read what you sign
The app checks the registration the server prepared against the code you scanned and what you approved. If anything does not match, it shows Do not sign with the reason and no sign button. Reject the enrolment and tell your IT security cell.
Otherwise it lists, in plain words, what the registration records: the phone key, the official, the roles, the designation, the posting, the validity and the key it replaces. Show the exact text you sign shows the text itself. If you typed the code, compare the key code on both phones, group by group, and tick that they match.
7. Sign
Tap Sign with my key and record. The screen shows Registered on the ledger with the block. The official's phone signs in by itself and asks them to set an app PIN.
If no answer comes back, tap the button again. The same signed registration is sent, never a second one.
A lost phone, a transfer or a leaver
Open Officials and search by name or ID. Needs you lists the officials waiting on you.
| What happened | Do this |
|---|---|
| The phone is lost or stolen | Tap End all sessions now, then Revoke this key with the reason "Phone lost or stolen". Ending sessions alone is not enough: the key could open a new session. |
| The key may be known to someone else | Revoke it as "Key compromised" |
| Transferred | Change the posting (a second registrar confirms it), revoke the old key as "Transferred", and enrol the phone again for the new posting |
| Left the service | Set the status to "Left the service" (a second registrar confirms it), then revoke every key as "Left the service" |
| Registered by mistake | Revoke it as "Registered by mistake" |
A revocation takes effect from the next block: the key can no longer sign anything or open a session. What it signed before stays valid.
A supervising officer can end the sessions of an officer at a station they supervise, for example after a call at night about a lost phone, but cannot revoke the key.
Holds on new phones
After five wrong PINs, a SIM mismatch, a "this is not me" report, or a new phone enrolled while another key was active, new phones are held for that official for a day. Release a hold early only after checking the official in person and settling the reason, and say why. The server records your reason.
Change the roster
- Add an official or Change the record: name and rank in English and Hindi, designation, official mobile number, email, expected roles, posting, status, dates and HR number. The mobile number and email are sealed; leave them empty to keep them.
- A change of mobile number, posting or status takes effect only when a second registrar enters the same change. The registrar who asked cannot confirm their own change.
- Import from HR takes a CSV or JSON export, all or nothing. First Check the file: the server reports what it would add, change or refuse, and changes nothing. Then import.
- Setting the status to "Left the service" or "Suspended" ends the official's sessions when it takes effect.
The help desk
Requests lists what officials sent: help requests, problem reports, "this is not me" alerts, new phones and lost phones. Open one, open the official's record from it, and close it with what you did. The official sees your note.
Station and court profiles (police and judiciary)
- The police registrar keeps any station's profile: its supervising officer, the stations its Zero FIRs usually go to, its CCTNS status and its beat map centre. An SHO keeps their own station's supervisor and transfer stations.
- Duty rosters: choose the official to see the next 14 days and their leave balance, and change a day's kind or the leave count.
- The court registrar or CPC keeps court profiles: holidays, hearing times, station names and the eCourts establishment code.
The CCTNS check (police)
Each night the server compares the FIRs on the ledger with CCTNS and lists what did not match: an FIR without a CCTNS number, a CCTNS number without an FIR, numbers that differ, a print whose hash differs, or a number another case holds. The registrar sees every station of the state, and a supervising officer sees their own stations.
Under Numbers to release, the state's registrar can release a CCTNS FIR number that a case still holds by mistake. Release one only when the register shows it belongs to another FIR. Choose why, write the reasons, and sign. The release (external.release) is recorded on the ledger, and the right FIR can then claim the number.
What is recorded where
| On the ledger, signed with your key | On the backend, recorded with your key and audited |
|---|---|
Each registration (key.register), each revocation (key.revoke), each release of a CCTNS FIR number (external.release) | Approvals and rejections, roster changes and imports, sessions ended, holds released with your reason, SIM risk reviews, requests closed, station profiles and duty rosters |
Sources: docs/registrar.md on the migration branch of digifir-police-app, digifir-forensics-app and digifir-magistrate-app; digifir-backend docs/architecture/BACKEND.md section 11, DECISIONS.md ADR-09; digifir-chaincode docs/SPEC.md sections 2.1 and 2.4.