As per the notification mandated by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), the registration of new vehicles by the issuance of Certification of Registration has been blocked for all classes of motor vehicles and this has come under effect since May 2, 2019. This has been marked as the deadline for integrating High-Security Registration Plates (HSRP) with the ‘Vahan’ application.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has carried forward the rule of not allowing access to the application ‘Vahan’, which allows one to register their vehicle.
Consequently, registration certificates cannot be issued for new vehicles in any state, post-Thursday, except Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, as these states use their own software instead of Vahan.
The Idea of Blocking the Certificate of Registration:
In the year 2002, after the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament in Delhi, the Supreme Court had passed an order to install High Security Registration Plates in the vehicles, which provides tons of security features that are tamper-proof, as the attack was initiated using a vehicle with tampered number plate.
Unfortunately, it could never be carried forward until it was made mandatory in 2012. Since September 2018, the Delhi Transport Dept made it a punishable offence to not instill a HSRP on vehicles.
The MoRTH has mandated all the vehicle manufacturers to install these HSRPs into the vehicle before sale of the vehicle, the price of which will be included in the price of the vehicle. The idea is to ensure nationwide uniformity in licence plate prices and bring down the cost for the customer, who has to spend anywhere between Rs 800 to Rs 40,000 for them.
This does not mean that the vehicles bought before the said date cannot install HSRP into their vehicles. As suggested by the Transport Ministry, authorised vendors could provide HSRPs to older vehicles, if the state government agrees to it.
The Main Reason Behind Installing HSRP: What Interests the Common Man?
The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways have taken this step to curb vehicle theft and enable easier tracking of lost and stolen vehicles.
The high security registration plates come with several security features. These plates are made up of aluminium and are wrapped in reflective tapes. To discourage counterfeiting, a chromium-based hologram is hot-stamped with self-destructive feature, containing the image of Ashoka Chakra in blue.
The 10-digit print is be laser branded on the botton of the plate, with ‘India’ inscribed on it.
To ensure they aren’t stolen, the plates are fixed with tamper-proof, non-removable, non-reusable snap locks, which will break on any attempt to remove the plates. This will engage the security against fraud and theft of cars.
The government states that this step is likely to improve the coverage of HSRP on vehicles, while ensuring its quality by the vehicle manufacturers. The HSRP helps in keeping track of the vehicle, and makes it easier to trace a lost or stolen vehicle.
Currently, Maruti is the only car vendor to have successfully come up with the registration plate. The RTOs too will be unable to issue temporary permits and NIC has blocked complete access to the ‘Vahan’ database.
This step of shifting to High Security Registration Plates may work out as a great step towards reducing car thefts that has significantly affected every corner of India.
Such installations have already been taken off in many countries and its good to learn that India has finally stepped in the list.
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