Why VIP numbers for govt vehicles? Himachal HC asks Chief Secretary

Vijay Arora

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Shimla, November 17

The High Court has sought response from the Chief Secretary on the issue of reservation of serial no. 0001 to 0010 only for government vehicles.

The court asked what was so sacrosanct about the numbers that a government vehicle could not do without these.

It directed the counsel for the state to file an affidavit of the Chief Secretary and explain how the government justified the allotment of the numbers to their vehicles against the payment of money which obviously was of taxpayers.

‘What is so special’

The court fails to understand as to what is so special about these numbers that a government vehicle cannot do without it, be it a government vehicle belonging to any department, or any functionary.” — Justice Ajay Mohan Goel, HC Judge

Passing these directions, Justice Ajay Mohan Goel observed, “The court fails to understand as to what is so special about these numbers that a government vehicle cannot do without it, be it a government vehicle belonging to any department, or any functionary.”

Justice Goel observed, “If the intent behind the issuance of the notification is that the exchequer of the government should be enriched in the event of an owner of motor vehicle intending to have a number of his choice, then this court is of the considered view that this doctrine of election cannot be exercised by the government on the same analogy as any other private individual. In other words, the government cannot have a number of choice on its vehicles at the cost of taxpayers’ money.”

The court passed this order on a petition wherein the grievance of the petitioner primarily is that in terms of notification issued on November 26, 2011, by the Department of Transport, the petitioner had applied for registration no. HP 62C 0006 against a payment of Rs 50,000 and the amount was deposited by way of bank draft, yet its allotment was arbitrarily denied to him by the department.

It was further contended that a subsequent notification issued by the department on November18, 2015, in which the amount of special registration fee had been enhanced to Rs 1,00,000 for serial no 0001 to 0010 and also for serial no. 0011 to 0100.

Beyond serial no. 0101 to 0999, the amount of special registration fee is Rs 25,000 and from serial no. 1000 onwards, it is Rs 5,000.

The rationale behind it appears to be simple and cogent that if the owner of a vehicle wants a number of his choice, which is available, then he or she can have it after paying special registration fee.

It was contended that incidentally, the registration marks or serial or registration no. 0001 to 0010 had been reflected to be as “reserved” and it was also mentioned in the notification that registration marks specified against serial no. 0001 would be reserved for motor vehicles owned by the government and be allotted only after a payment of a fix charge of Rs 1,00,000 by the government agency concerned.