All motorised vehicles plying on public roads in India are tagged with a unique registration or licence number.

The number plates are mandatory on both front and rear of the vehicle and are required to be in modern Hindu-Arabic numerals with latin letters.

The current format for the registration of private and commercial came into force on 1 July 1989 as part of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

On 15 July 2021, the Ministry of Road Transport issued a notification[4] regarding a special registration process for vintage vehicles.

It was introduced to provide exemption from various pollution and scrappage norms and thus, facilitate promotion of heritage of vintage vehicles.

Vehicle may only be used for specific purposes on public roads (e.g. vintage car rally) and not for generic private or commercial use.

This special registration process was introduced to ease inter-state mobility by eliminating the hassles of re-registering a vehicle when its owner relocates to a new state or Union Territory.

Following registration format is used: Characters are representative of following: Vehicles belonging to diplomatic missions are granted the level of diplomatic immunity or consular immunity corresponding to whom the vehicle has been attributed to by the Ministry of External Affairs.

Immunity is void if a UN, CD or CC vehicle is driven in absence of an accredited member of the diplomatic or consular corps.

A specific state or union territory maybe chosen to register a vehicle due to differences in the amount of taxes involved in registration process.

Andhra Pradesh follows a separate format and a common district number (AP 40 as of 2023) is used across all districts/RTOs in the state.

In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the letter Z is reserved for the State Road Transport (APSRTC) and TSRTC buses (AP**Z, TS**Z, and so on).

Also, the number series GJ 18 Y is reserved for the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) buses.

However, after the exhaustion of private series in Ahmedabad, vehicles are being registered with the T to Z suffix pattern to meet the demand.

In Rajasthan, the following letters are used for registration: M, S, B for two wheelers, C for cars, P for buses, G for trucks, T for taxis and tourist passenger vehicles.

On 31 March 2021, the Ministry of Road Transport issued a notification[19] regarding amendment to Motor Vehicles Act.

Rule 53C in the amendment introduced a homogenised alphanumeric format for temporary registration: Characters are representative of following: Example: T1123LA0123A for a vehicle purchased in Ladakh in November 2023 Temporary registration has a validity of up to six months, states however may use a stricter validity time.

To register a vehicle, it may need to be presented to the RTO, where a Motor Vehicle Inspector will verify the applicant's address and other details, confirm that the engine and chassis numbers are identical to what is written in the application and issues a permanent registration certificate which is usually valid for 20 years.

Features incorporated include the number plate having a patented chromium hologram,[21] a laser numbering containing the alpha-numeric identification of both the testing agency and manufacturers and a retro-reflective film bearing a verification inscription "India" at a 45-degree inclination.

The letters "IND" were printed in a light shade of blue on the observers left side under the hologram.

[21] However it has yet to be implemented since the various state Governments has not yet appointed an official source for manufacture of these plates,[23] due to disputes which are currently in various Indian courts.

[24] Currently all of North East including Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Karnataka, Andaman & Nicobar Islands (UT) and Goa are the only states which have complied in full.

[24] Haryana and Punjab has launched the High Security Registration Plates Scheme in the state.

Gradually, a prefix of single or two letter(s) was introduced which was representative of province/city, and was followed by a number of (up to) four digits, e.g. K 1234[29] or FP 1234.

After the introduction of Motor Vehicles Act (1939), many three-letter codes were introduced and this format gradually became the most common.

Characters are representative of following: In the case of Central Provinces, three-letter codes used for vehicle registration were: Format of using single letter prefix was also phased out.

Certain states/UTs in India also remained exceptions as they continued to use two-letter codes for some more years: Chandigarh (CH), Pondicherry (PY), Andaman & Nicobar islands (AN) and Jammu & Kashmir (JK).

Princely states had a different registration format compared to rest of the country until they acceded to independent India.

Colour scheme used was white text on red background and the format was state's name followed by a number.

Example: MYSORE 1, JODHPUR 5 It used to be a general practice for offices of top constitutional authorities in India (i.e. President, Vice-president, Governors and lieutenant governors and the protocol division of the Ministry of External Affairs) to not register their official vehicles.