Serendipity : Musings of an Islander

Implementation of High Security Registration Plates (HSRP) for motor vehicles in India could be traced to the Hon’ble Supreme Court order wherein the Secretary, Transport and the Commissioner, State Transport Authority of the State of Haryana had been held guilty of willful disobedience/non-compliance of court orders particularly the orders dated 30th November 2004, 7th April 2011 and 30th August 2011. Having found guilty the court punished the erring officials to pay fines and in default, undergo simple imprisonment for 15 days; Exemplary cost was also imposed on the particular State. The apex court further set 31st March, 2012 as the deadline to implement the scheme, pan-India. Consequently the RTO/Directorate of Transport, A&N Administration had drawn up a detailed schedule according to which fixing of HSRP started on 11th Jan and would be completed by 30th March ie., a day before actual expiry of the deadline set by the hon’ble apex court. A look at the schedule issued by ...

All motorised vehicles are fitted with a registration plate (commonly called Number Plate) bearing registration mark, at the front and back, in specific size and colour combination depending upon the class of the vehicle. In India until June 30, 1989, the registration plate system adopted a scheme where the first 2 or 3 alphabets were the state code, followed by unique registration number (numeral upto 4 digits). Some of the older vehicles still carry this valid numbering scheme. In the early 2000, the number plate colour scheme was changed from white over black to black over white for private non-commercial vehicles, and from black over white to black over yellow for all other class of vehicles. Also in the revised system, first two letters of the registration mark represent the state in which the vehicle is registered and the next two digit (numerals) indicate the sequential number of the district. Third part is a 4 digit number unique to each plate. Once the 4 digit number reach...