Chandigarh: Four months ago, Vinayak brought home a brand new black Tata Safari. He spent Rs 30 lakh on it, his entire two years of savings. But the SUV barely left his driveway. It wasn’t paperwork or pending accessories — Vinayak was waiting for the right number plate. He won’t settle for anything less than a VIP number.
He was waiting for the auction for VIP registration numbers, the application process for which is now over. Vinayak has been tracking the upcoming series closely. He is in contact with at least four agents who assure him of his preferred choice.
“Before deciding on the car, I had decided on the number,” he said. His choice is 0700 — a number with a base registration price of Rs 20,000.
For a random registration number, it takes anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000 in the Union territory.
“This series is expected to be expensive. I’m prepared for the bid to go up to ₹4–5 lakh,” he said, adding that he has already set aside Rs five lakh. “If needed, I’ll ask my father for more money. I want that number.”
Chandigarh’s latest auction under the new DC series is a marker of growing obsession Indians have developedwith unique license plates. They are ready to make a statement and generate curiosity. From Haryana to Telangana and Bihar, buyers are chasing the prestige attached to VIP series. And for the transport departments too, it’s a serious business. The Haryana government in December raised scrutiny of such bidders after a car owner failed to deposit the pending amount despite having won the bid for a number that cost Rs one crore. For the administration, this obsession has turned into a source of easy revenue: Chandigarh Registering and Licensing Authorityalone has earned over Rs 1,200 crore from number plate auctions in the last five years.
The reasons for acquiring attractive numbers vary from person to person. While it is a hobby for some, for others, it’s a matter of symbol and status. Then there are those who fashion instilling fear using these license plates. Some even find them to bring luck. Annual revenue collections from the auction of such number plates have surged.
Wealthy buyers often shell out over 10 per cent of their car’s price on luxury number plates. Chandigarh’s auctions have drawn particularly high bids — driven by a unique mix of passion, prestige, and competition.
“The fancy-number platform has seen unprecedented participation because the digital bidding system leaves no scope for discretion. It was 2013 when the offline auction took place, then there were scope of fixing but now any more. People trust the process, and that trust is driving the scale of revenue we see today. Its good for us. Process has become easy and more and more people are coming to get their desired number,” said Sanjeev Kohli, Registering and Licencing officer, Chandigarh.
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The obsession
The passion for VIP plates runs in Vinayak’s family. His businessman father never travelled in just one car. A BMW, a Mercedes and an Audi formed his convoy, all carrying the same number — 0001. But Vinayak’s lucky number is 7. His reasons are different from his father’s, whose choice purely underlined his status.
“My birthdate is 7 August, so that was the prime reason. But I also met my girlfriend in August, and my favourite cricketer, Dhoni’s jersey number, is also seven. That’s why I wanted 0700. I know that 0007 would be the ideal number, but I wanted something unique,” said Vinayak.
He has strong memories of these VIP numbers from his childhood. The cars waiting to pick him up outside his school, dropping him to swimming and tuitions.
“I remember how my friend used to ask me if they could sit in my car, they seemed really impressed by the fact that all of them had the same number,” he said.
In Vinayak’s friend circle though, the VIP numbers are not a VIP phenomenon.
“My best friend has two Fortuners — black and white — and both have the VIP number 0003. We are five friends, and everyone has triple-zero numbers with one variation: 0004, 0800, 0100 — we have all these, and now 0700 will be added to the collection,” he said.
24-year-old Aman, who works with Baba Luxury Cars in Delhi, bought a VIP number for Rs 2.3 lakh at an auction a year ago. He is a proud owner of a Mercedes-Benz C-Class that costs a Rs 60 lakh. Around 20 people were part of that bidding.
“This craze has become popular because of YouTubers who show off VIP numbers in their videos. That’s the reason. It looks cool. In our line of business, people easily pay Rs 50,000–Rs one lakh for a desired number,” said Aman, who also owns a Thar with 0004, a VIP number.
He added that many buyers from southern states purchase luxury cars from them, obtain an NOC from their home state, and then wait for a preferred registration number.
“In many cases, numbers come along with the cars, but many people want a new number when they are buying second hand luxury cars because they want to show off,” said Aman.
A Gurugram industrialist confirmed this trend. He has four cars — a BMW, Fortuner, Thar and Mercedes — all carrying the same number: 0001. He has no numerology, birthday or anniversary theory to back it. He simply owns it to tell people that he is important.
“I can’t have a red light on my vehicle, and neither can I use hooters, so I always go out with four vehicles, all with the same VIP number, so people know that someone important is on the road. There are a lot of benefits — people don’t get into arguments with you, security personnel behave properly. That’s my reason for owning it. If I buy another car, I will buy the same number for that too,” said the industrialist, requesting anonymity.
Luck quotient and numerology also play their part.
Fifty-year-old Manoj Jethiya lives in Ludhiana and runs a car accessories business. He has four cars, all with the same number — 3400. He does not show off his number plate but makes sure that each of his cars has it. He has two reasons for that.
“My son’s birthday is on 3 April — that’s 3-4. And if you add 3 and 4, it becomes 7, which is Guruji’s birthday on 7 July. That’s why I go for this number. This is not a super VIP number, so I don’t face much trouble or have to pay a big amount for it,” said Jethiya, who recently paid around Rs 50,000 for the number.
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The DC series craze
Thirty-year-old Punit Gupta works with two luxury car brand dealers in Chandigarh. His work is to provide RCs and help clients get their desired numbers.
His other identity is of an auction agent, catering individual clients— from registration to physically depositing the demand draft at the Registering and Licensing Authority office and giving regular updates about the auction. He handles everything. Currently, he has three clients.
“First, we have to submit the Rs 500 registration fee, which is non-refundable, and then comes the reservation price. If you are opting for numbers such as 0001–0009, the price is Rs 50,000, and for double-digit-style numbers such as 3100, the reservation price is Rs 20,000. We give all this information to the client and explain the whole process. We get a commission of around Rs 6,000–7,000 for each number plate,” said Gupta, who had travelled to Delhi from Chandigarh to hand over some RCs to his clients.
In Chandigarh, as many as 3,308 numbers were auctioned in 2020, which rose to 6,167 in 2021, 9,055 in 2022, 9,599 in 2023, and 8,752 in 2024. This year, 4,088 numbers have been auctioned till 30 October, signalling yet another high-participation rate. Annual revenue rose from Rs 106.16 crore in 2020 to Rs 319.05 crore in 2024, with Rs 145.11 crore collected in 2025 so far, and the last auction is expected to be the biggest.
In the last few years, his visits to Delhi have increased, as people from Delhi, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Punjab are now coming to Chandigarh to buy numbers. There are two major reasons for this.
“Chandigarh has only one series, they take pride in CH01 numbers. There is no other series for private vehicles here. Another reason is that the security and paperwork are so strong that cars registered here don’t get stopped by security on the roads as often,” said Kohli.
Now, the new DC series is in demand.
“My friend wanted to buy a Thar next month, but since the DC-series auction is happening this week, he advanced the purchase and delivery to make the car eligible for this series,” said Vinayak.
In Chandigarh, as many as 3,308 numbers were auctioned in 2020, which rose to 6,167 in 2021, 9,055 in 2022, 9,599 in 2023, and 8,752 in 2024. This year, 4,088 numbers have been auctioned till 30 October, signalling yet another high-participation rate. Annual revenue rose from Rs 106.16 crore in 2020 to Rs 319.05 crore in 2024, with Rs 145.11 crore collected in 2025 so far, and the last auction is expected to be the biggest.
“This series will be a superhit. People are really passionate about the DC series. Now even unusual numbers will be in demand — such as 1322. It is a common number if you look at it alone, but when it comes with DC, it becomes DC 1322, which people read as ‘DC tera bhai’. People find this cool as well,” said Kohli.
The RLA department had received around 485 applications for the auction. The last round of auctions were held less than five months ago in August. In one series, there are 1,000 numbers.
“The Office of the Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA), Chandigarh conducted an e-auction of fancy and choice vehicle registration numbers of the new ‘CH01-DC’ series from 20 to 22 December 2025. A total of 485 registration numbers were auctioned, fetching a revenue of Rs 2.96 crore. The registration number CH01-DC-0001 fetched the highest bid of Rs 31.35 lakh, followed by CH01-DC-0009 at Rs 20.42 lakh,” an RLA Chandigarh official told ThePrint.
The RLA office celebrated this auction with sweets. Punit Gupta made many visits to the office for the paperwork and his last visit was to have sweets.
“One of my clients got the number he wanted, 0009, he got it for Rs 20.42 lakh. it was a bit much but he was super happy,” said Gupta.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)