Gita Mittal, J.

1. The petitioner, a society which claims to be working in the domain of transport, by way of the instant writ petition, made a grievance that the vehicles of the Rashtrapati Bhawan; office of the Vice-President; the Raj Niwas and the Protocol Division of the Ministry of External Affairs do not display registration marks on their vehicles. Instead the registration mark stands replaced by the State Emblem of India.

2. The petitioner has contended that registration mark on vehicles is mandatory under Section 41(6) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 which relates to the manner in which registration of vehicles is to be effected. Section 41(6) of the Act reads as follows:

“41. Registration, how to be made.-

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(6) The registering authority shall assign to the vehicle, for display thereon, a distinguishing mark (in this Act referred to as the registration mark) consisting of one of the groups of such of those letters and followed by such letters and figures as are allotted to the State by the Central Government from time to time by notification in the Official Gazette, and displayed and shown on the motor vehicle in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed by the Central Government.” (Emphasis by us)

3. We may also note that Rules 50 and 51 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 elaborate the form and manner of display of registration marks on the motor vehicles and read as under :

“50. Form and manner of display of registration marks on the motor vehicles.- (1) On or after commencement of this rule, the registration mark referred to in sub-section (6) of section 41 shall be displayed both at the front and at the rear of all motor vehicles clearly and legibly in the form of security license plate of the following specifications, namely:-

(i) the plate shall be a solid unit made of 1.0 mm aluminium conforming to DIN 1745/DIN 1783 or ISO 7591. Border edges and corners of the plate shall be rounded to avoid injuries to the extent of approx. 10 mm and the plates must have an embossed border. The plate shall be suitable for hot stamping and reflective sheet has to be guaranteed for imperishable nature for minimum five years. The fast colouring of legend and border to be done by hot stamping;

(ii) the plate should bear the letters "IND" in blue colour on the extreme left centre of the plate. The letter should be one-fourth of the size of letters mentioned in rule 51 and should be buried into the foil or applied by hot stamping and should be integral part of the plate;

(iii) each plate shall be protected against counterfeiting by applying chromium-based hologram, applied by hot stamping. Stickers and adhesive labels are not permitted. The plate shall bear a permanent consecutive identification number of minimum seven digits, to be laser branded into the reflective sheeting and hot stamping film shall bear a verification inscription;

(iv) apart from the registration marks on the front and rear, the third registration mark in the form of self-destructive type, chromium based hologram sticker shall be affixed on the left-hand top side of the windshield of the vehicle. The registration details such as registration number, registering authority, etc., shall be printed on the sticker. The third registration mark shall be issued by the registering authorities/approved dealers of the license plates manufacturer along with the regular registration marks, and thereafter if such sticker is destroyed it shall be issued by the license plate manufacturer or his dealer;

(v) the plate shall be fastened with non-removable/non-reusable snap lock fitting system on rear of the vehicle at the premises of the registering authority; The license plates with all the above specifications and the specified registrations for a vehicle shall be issued by the registering authority or approved the license plates manufacturers or their