[Kamikaze]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Precisely the reason why many states in North India issue numbers as '0681' and not just '681'.

Originally Posted by av8er

My immediate thoughts when I read your number plate itself was that it is written wrong. It looks like you have an RTO authorised number plate, which surprises me even more.

Shouldnt it read KA 02 MF 0681? With the '0' (zero) in place.

Mine is a high security regn plate. I had the same question when I first got the plate made by the HSRP vendor - he said this is within the guidelines and he is authorized to remove the leading zero.

Anyway, the question is moot. Irrespective of how my number plate is written, any violations by the car in question (the white fiesta) would land up at my door.

Originally Posted by pramodkumar

I have a friend in the Motor Vehicle Department who is a MVI here in Trivandrum and he told me that before the challan is sent to the customer a lot of verification happens.
Pramod

Pramod - is it possible for you to check with your friend what the right action should be on my part? I do not want to get into hot water later through no fault of mine.

[saket77]

That's bad. And shocking. I think you should inform the RTO about this in writing along with the photograph as a proof. Get a counter copy of the application signed as an acknowledgment of it being received by the RTO. May land you in trouble esp. if officials come to know that you knew this fact.

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by pramodkumar

^^ guys, for every offence recorded (eg. speeding, red light jumping) you get a pic of the car performing the violation; I have a friend in the Motor Vehicle Department who is a MVI here in Trivandrum and he told me that before the challan is sent to the customer a lot of verification happens.

If this other guy gets challaned by a highway patrol/ interceptor he will be asked to produce the docs and at that time (hopefully) they will write a challan based on the docs, which will not be fabricated(again being hopeful). Even if it is wrongly challaned this does not go into their database against your vehicle, they have a very long list of pending data entry to do, so relax. Take it as a good joke and laugh it out.

Pramod

No you get it wrong. Anyway if he gets stopped and is asked for the RC then he'll be in trouble.

Problem is if he commits some criminal offense or gets into an accident and speeds away. If someone managed to note down the number, then the original owner will have to make rounds and provide evidence that he's not the culprit.

To be frank, last digit not visible in both number plates means he has done it intentionally. I would strongly advise you to take it seriously and give an undertaking at the RTO as mentioned by others.

I do know of one instance in rural Haryana where a guy went to meet a family of considerable clout, at their home. While stepping out he mentioned, "sir that's a nice looking car standing in your garage. I'm not saying the car is mine, but the registration number is. Can you please change it to some other number?"

[Kamikaze]

Update:

Spoke to the Public Relations Officer - RTO West (KA02). Here is the synopsis:
1. The officer checked both vehicle regn numbers - the offending vehicle belongs to one Mr. G_____ and matches the car pictured earlier
2. Given a drastic difference in vehicle characteristics (color, make, type etc), I was told not to worry - was told that there is a directive to the police to mention color & make with any offence reports and this should help me
3. To be on the safer side, I was told to submit a written complaint with the appropriate photos - which I will do at the earliest.

The Public Relations Officer, a lady, was patient, sympathetic and helpful. A big to the KA02 PRO.

[vinayasurya]

I would suggest you to send a message to BTP ( Bangalore Traffic Police ) through facebook and they may suggest how to handle this. You can post the picture as evidence too.

[F150]

Yes, please proceed to the RTO and check the vehicle extract for your registration number. The vehicle extract should read a PUNTO and not a FIESTA and then file a police compliant asap , along with the vehicle extract and get a copy of the complaint for your reference.

[void_001]

Really sad to see this happen in Namma Bengaluru.

Best to give it in writing to the RTO and also inform the BTP in writing (and have a copy of the acknowledgement slip through registered post). This should serve as a disclaimer in case the other guy does something wrong.

Cheers!

[Mr.Beat]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

I have another query. Do RTOs issue 3 digit numbers like 681? I have a feeling it is always either 0681 or 6810 and few people intentionally omit the 0 to look "cool and happening". Does your number has a 0 as prefix or suffix? It should have one of the two in which case your number plate is equally faulty and if it had that 0 then the 2 numbers are different regardless of whether the other driver's car had a 3 or not.

I hope not, the numbers are issued as 4 digit only but are written on the number plate in such a fancy manner. One thing that is easily forgotten by the consumers and the cops alike only until something drastic comes up.


Eg:
007 ( When the number is actually 0007 or could even be 0070)
8668 ( this is written as appa )
MH registrations also carry Marathi written numbers plates

[crackparag]

Shocking. Although this incident reminds me of something similar that happened a few years back. A chap in my building had same number on two of his cars (same rto, same series, same number). When I asked him about the same, he said one of the numbers is from the two wheeler series. I refused to believe that something like this could be possible so checked with my SA at Maruti and was told that this is indeed possible. Can anyone here confirm the same?

[tharian]

Talking about co-incidences, this is what I happened to see one fine morning.

The first car is mine- KA 03 MM 7775 and the second one is what I saw,
KA 03 MQ 7775.
The only difference being the 'Q'.
It was a Figo, a red one, a petrol one and from the same dealer!
And yes, it was a Zxi and mine is a Exi

[ad3952n]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Precisely the reason why many states in North India issue numbers as '0681' and not just '681'.

Totally agree with you Anshuman, as in North due to the fear of challan or being wrongly accused at times, owners have to follow this norm of having full registration numbers. Also recently I have noticed that the fancy fonts have started to decline but not sharply.

Here is an example to further substantiate your point.




Thanks

[k_ajay]

Originally Posted by av8er

In Chennai I have had cops pull me up for that as we used to have a single digit number for one of our previous cars and they refused to accept it and said it is always a 4 digit no and the zeros have to be in place.

In both Chennai and B'lore, I've seen cars with a single digit number. For ex: TN07 MK 6. Single digits are a premium/fancy number and can be availed by paying more.

Such customers need not use '0' in the beginning to make it a 4 digit number. No surprise you got pulled up as Cops seldom have all the knowledge. (even if some do, they'll seize opportunity to hassle the lesser aware individuals).

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by ad3952n

In Mumbai I have seen number of cars with 3 digit registration numbers. Even high end luxury cars over there have 2 & 3 digit numbers.

Thanks

Some of those 2 and 3 digit numbers might belong to the years old sequences that were basically transferred from an older car onto this new luxury car. That is legal. The difference is that even the initial part of the number in such cases will be very different containing only 2 or 3 alphabets. Whereas in contrast, when people intentionally omit writing a zero in the 4 digit numbers issued now, the initial part of the number will still read something like DL 4C TC xxxx.

I think the OP here might himself be using a faulty number plate.

Originally Posted by k_ajay

In both Chennai and B'lore, I've seen cars with a single digit number. For ex: TN07 MK 6. Single digits are a premium/fancy number and can be availed by paying more.

Such customers need not use '0' in the beginning to make it a 4 digit number. No surprise you got pulled up as Cops seldom have all the knowledge. (even if some do, they'll seize opportunity to hassle the lesser aware individuals).

Are you sure they don't need to write the 0s at the beginning or end of this fancy number. I really doubt this claim.

[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by Kamikaze

- What course of action is most recommended at this point?

Sad to know another car is driving with your number. Since you mentioned he was happily driving talking in his phone, somewhere a cop might capture the number and record it.

OT: It has happened to me many times where I have paid fine for some other's mistakes, as the constable noting down the number by mistake has written my number in it and hence the fine on me.

I would suggest you to post this on BTP faceook page,
https://www.facebook.com/BangaloreTrafficPolice and I am sure the BTP will respond to your post and do the needful. I am suggesting you based on my experience and response I got from BTP on their facebook page.

Hope this helps!

[noopster]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

I have another query. Do RTOs issue 3 digit numbers like 681? I have a feeling it is always either 0681 or 6810 and few people intentionally omit the 0 to look "cool and happening".

Technically it should be 0681 (6810 is a different number altogether, not sure how it fits in here). But lots of people use only the significant digits, which is still OK because there is only one unique number matching that, e.g. 0017, 017 and 17 are not separately issued, just the first one.

My suspicious brain tells me there is more to this story than what it seems. Considering the crackdown of KA RTOs on out-of-state vehicles, some smart cookie could have come up with a scheme to use a legitimate car number as his own to avoid being stopped by authorities. Of course he could get in serious trouble if he ever gets into a major accident or, say the vehicle is stolen, but what are the chances of that happening!