'What Is So Special About 0001 To 0010?': HP High Court Asks Chief Secretary To Justify Allotment Of VIP Numbers For Govt Vehicles

Hearing a petition related to the denial of allotment of a registration number to one Sanjay Sood, Justice Ajay Mohan Goyal perused a Department Of Transport notification under which registration numbers 0001 to 0010 have been reflected to be as "reserved" for motor vehicles owned by the government. They are to be allotted only after payment of fix charge of Rs.1,00,000 by the concerned government agency, as per the notification.

"What is so sacrosanct about serial Nos. 0001 to 0010 that a Government vehicle cannot do without these numbers? How does the Government justify allotment of these numbers to a Government vehicle against payment of money which money obviously is of taxpayer?" asked the court, while directing the Chief Secretary to file an affidavit.

Sood in the petition said that in terms of a notification issued in 2011, he had applied for grant of registration no. HP 62C 0006 for his vehicle against payment of Rs.50000, which amount was deposited by way of bank drafts. However, the allotment was "arbitrarily" denied to him, his counsel told the court.

As per the 2011 notification, an amount of Rs.75000 was chargeable as special registration fee for allotment of number '0001' of any series to a vehicle owner, Rs 50,000 for serial No.0002 to 0009, Rs.35000 was chargeable from serial No. 0010 to 0100 and Rs.5000 from 0101 to 9999.

A notification of 2015 was also on record according to which the amount of special registration fee has 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 court said after perusing the notification.

"Incidentally, the registration marks or serial or registration No.0001 to 0010 have been reflected to be as "reserved" and it is also mentioned in the notification that registration marks specified against serial No.0001 shall be reserved for the motor vehicles owned by the Government and shall be allotted only after payment of fix charge of Rs.1,00,000/­ by the concerned Government agency," said the court. 

Justice Goel said the court fails to understand the rationale behind reserving the numbers, that a government vehicle or any functionary cannot do without them.

"If the intent behind 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 number of choice on the Government vehicles at the cost of tax payer's money," said the court.

The court listed the matter for hearing on December 12.

Case Title: Sanjay Sood v. State of Himachal Pradesh and Others

Citation: CWP No. 2466 of 2019

Coram: Justice Ajay Mohan Goel

Click Here To Read/Download the Order