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NEW DELHI: In a first, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that state governments can amend the Motor Vehicle Rules to charge a premium, over and above the normal vehicle registration fee, for assigning a fancy registration number, chosen by the owner, to a vehicle.
The ruling by a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat disappointed a man who had waged a 16-year-long legal battle, from the Madhya Pradesh high court to the SC, in his determination to get 4646 as the registration number for his motorcycle without paying any extra charge.
One Rakesh Sethi purchased a motorcycle in May 2004 and applied for its registration while demanding the number MP-KL-4646. The registration authority declined the request as he had not paid the prescribed fee for the fancy number. His motorcycle was allotted MP-20-KL-5100.
Sethi moved the HC. In its judgment, the HC said the field of prescribing fee for an application for registration had been exclusively conferred upon the Union government, with states having no power to claim any manner of fee or amount as part of that task. The MP government challenged it in the SC.
The states additional advocate general Saurabh Mishra said: “Once a series of numbers (or alphanumeric series) is allotted to a state, the procedure to be followed and the fee to be prescribed for assigning the concerned numbers as registration of individual vehicles is that of the state,” he said.
Writing the judgment, Justice BhatRead More – Source
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