Motorists being fined for not having HSRP number plates

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

City motorists have complained that they are being fined for not having High Security Registration Plates (HSRPs), even though as per the law it is not required for vehicles purchased before April, 2019. Article 50 of the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act states that vehicles registered after April, 2019 should have HSRPs. However, motorists using older vehicles alleged they are being asked for the same and some are even being fined.

HSRPS were introduced as a security measure since the old vehicle number plates were relatively easy to tamper with. The new plates are made of aluminium and are fixed onto the vehicle with two non-reusable snap-on locks, among other measures. Defective number plates, on the other hand, don’t have readable fonts for numbers and letters, digits not being of the correct size and with graphics on the plates.

A two-wheeler rider, on condition of anonymity, said that he was stopped for jumping a red signal when he hadn’t. The traffic policemen fined him for a defective number plate, which he realised only later when he checked the fine slip. He said his vehicle was registered in 2013.

“The receipt says the date was July 8. I crossed the traffic signal near City Market. The trouble is there were pedestrians on the zebra crossing. So, I had to hit the brakes, then, I waited until they got out of the way and then rode on. I just made it as the orange traffic light flashed. However, a traffic cop stopped me and he justified it with ‘all vehicles had passed by before me’ and that must mean I ran a red light. When I protested, he said that I should have stopped when the light was orange to be extra safe and that he couldn’t do anything about pedestrians milling around on the zebra crossing. “He then checked my licence on an electronic device for earlier violations and found one. He showed me a picture of myself riding my two-wheeler near Majestic. I don’t recall jumping a red light there either. In fact, people are given the green light to turn left from that particular signal much earlier, which I did. Much later, when I saw the slip I realised that I had been charged for a faulty number plate as well, but the cop hadn’t said anything about it. I feel like a paid a fine Rs 1,500 for nothing,” he said.

Rumman, who drives a car, said that his vehicle, which was registered before April, 2019, was stopped for not having an HSRP. “This was around six to eight months ago. I was stopped near Frazer Town for not having an HSRP,” he said.