Delhi Police to get tough on faulty number plates

Delhi Police's traffic wing will Thursday launch a drive against vehicles with faulty number plates and offenders would have to cough up Rs. 2,000 instead of the earlier Rs. 100 fine, while repeat offenders can also land up in jail, an official said.

According to police, till now offenders were charged only under Rule 50/177 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules (CMVR), 1989 which provides for a meager penalty of Rs.100.

However, with the addition of Section 39/192 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, the fine has increased to Rs.2,000 for the first offence and Rs.5,000 or imprisonment up to an year or both for the subsequent offences.

"The offenders will not be able to pay the fine on the spot and will have to appear before the concerned court of law...They will have to change the defective number plates before they appear in the court," Additional Commissioner of Police (traffic) Anil Shukla said.

According to Shukla, the motorists, especially the commercial vehicles, were not bothered about sporting a legal number plate due to the meager fine.

He stressed that the number plates should be of the prescribed size with no images or stickers pasted on them and the letters should be of legal size and clearly visible.

To ensure that people do not challenge the fine in the court, all traffic police officials who will take part in the drive will be armed with digital cameras to click a photo fo the faulty number plate as evidence. The picture would be attached along with the challan.