Registration

Registration

Necessity of Vehicle Registration

Every motor vehicle is required to be registered before it is to be driven or kept on a public place. Section 39 or the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 describes about the necessity of registration of a motor vehicle. According to the act, no person shall drive any motor vehicle and no owner of motor vehicle shall cause or permit the vehicle to be driven in any public place or in any other place unless the vehicle is registered and the certificate of registration of the vehicle has not been suspended or cancelled and the vehicle carries a registration mark displayed in the prescribed manner:

Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to a motor vehicle in possession of a dealer subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by the Central Government. In addition, the Motor Vehicles Driving Regulations, 2017 describes the provisions of display of registration plates on the vehicle which are as follows:

1. No vehicle shall be driven or parked on a public road without displaying registration plates as prescribed by the Act and the rules made thereunder.
2. The registration plates on the front and at the rear of the vehicle shall be clearly visible and legible and no object whatsoever or dirt shall obstruct clear view of the entire registration place.
3. No letter, word, figure, picture or symbol other than the registration number shall be displayed or inscribed or written on the registration plates.
4. No load or other goods shall be placed on a motor vehicle in such manner as to fully or partly hide the registration plate.

High Security Registration Plate

High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) is a special registration plate that have embedded numbers on a metal sheet that is affixed on front and rear side of the vehicle with certain other security features. Once installed, the registration plate cannot be tempered or removed from the vehicle unless it is deliberately broken. HSRP has been made compulsory for all new vehicles which are being sold from 1^st April 2019. According to a Gazette Notification issued by MoRTH the following has been proposed in regard to HSRP:

1. The type approved High Security Registration Plates including the third registration mark, shall be supplied by the vehicle manufacturers to their dealers, who shall place a mark of registration on such plates and affix them on the automobiles.
2. A manufacturer of the motor vehicles shall ensure that the requisite infrastructure required for placing the mark of registration on the security licence plates and printing the third registration plate are available with their dealers.
3. The cost of high security registration plate and its affixture on the vehicle after placing the mark of registration shall be included in the price of the new vehicle and no additional or itemised cost shall be charged from the vehicle purchaser by the dealer for the same.

For the affixation of HSRP on existing vehicles, the high security registration plate including the third registration mark may be supplied and affixed by the dealers of the vehicle manufacturers after placing the mark of registration thereon.

Third Registration Plate

The third registration plate is in the form of a self-destructive type chromium based hologram sticker of size of 100 x 60 mm that is affixed on the inner side of left hand corner of windshield of the vehicle. The sticker is a diffraction foil film with high reflective index that has chromium based hologram embedded. The details on the sticker include the following:

1. Name of registering authority
2. Registration number of the vehicle
3. Laser branded permanent identification number
4. Date of first registration of the vehicle

On the bottom of the right corner of the sticker, the chromium based hologram of size 10 x 10 mm is embedded and registration number of the vehicle is displayed in the centre with a letter size of 10 mm in height. The background colour for sticker for the Diesel vehicles is Orange, Light Blue for the Petrol and CNG vehicles. For all other vehicles, the background colour is grey.

Colour Code of Registration Plate

The colour code of Registration Plate for different class of vehicles is depicted in the table below:

Bharat Series Registration Mark

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has launched a new Bharat Series (BH) of vehicle registration on 15^th September 2021 particularly for people who need to stay in different states for purpose of employment. BH series can be obtained by people working in Government or Private sector. For the Government Official Identity Card is required to be provided and for Private Sector Employee a declaration is required to be provided stating that they have offices in at least four different states for applying for BH series registration mark.

The registration mark of vehicle under BH series, opted voluntarily is generated randomly through the portal after verification of working certificate in Form 60 or Official identity card, as the case may be, by the registering authority. The registration mark for BH series vehicle displayed in black on white background and is exhibited in the following manner: