# India license plate: Bharat (BH)

> The India bharat (BH) license plate: format 99 BH 9999 LL, for example 22 BH 1234 AB, 2021 to today, car, van, and motorcycle.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/india/bh-2021 · Markdown version of the HTML page, which is canonical. Site map: https://vehiclesdb.com/llms.txt · Terms of use: https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/terms

Part of [India license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/india) (16 registration series).

![India license plate, Bharat (BH) (2021 to today)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/in/in-bh-2021/india-license-plate-bharat-bh.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `99 BH 9999 LL` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | 2021 → today |
| Class | standard |
| Issued for | car, van, motorcycle |
| Plate size | 340 × 200 mm |
| Other sizes | 500 × 120 mm; 200 × 100 mm: two-wheelers |
| Colours | background #FFFFFF; characters #000000 |
| Rear plate differs from the front | no |
| Checking a registration | The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued. |
| Series id | `in-bh-2021` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/india/bh-2021) |

The rule requires the BH mark to be "generated randomly through the portal" — the one Indian series its owner cannot choose.

The first two digits are the year of first registration — the only Indian plate that wears its age — then BH for Bharat: valid nationwide, no State, no district. The tail is generated randomly; the owner cannot choose it.

| Code | Stands for | English |
|---|---|---|
| `BH` | Bharat | India — nationwide validity |

Sources:

- [egazette.gov.in](https://egazette.gov.in/WriteReadData/2021/229283.pdf)

## About this plate

THE BHARAT (BH) SERIES, a genuinely new format, instrument-dated to the day. What the series solves is the § 47 re-registration burden on inter-State movers: rule 54(3), inserted by the same amendment, provides that the re-registration rule "shall not apply to a vehicle having BH-Series registration mark", the owner instead intimating the new State in Form 33 within thirty days. The mark is black on white by rule 50(8) in terms, the sub-rule prescribes the colour itself rather than leaning on rule 50(2)(d), and a transport BH plate does not exist.

## Region code notes

THE ONE INDIAN MARK WITH NO GEOGRAPHY IN IT, that is the entire point of the series. There is no state code and no district code; "BH" is Bharat, the country. A parse API must not attempt a regional decode on a BH string, and must not read the leading two digits as a district: they are a year.

## How numbers are issued

The first two digits are the last two digits of the YEAR of registration, which makes BH the only Indian series with an exact age in the serial. The trailing letter group advances A..Z then AA..ZZ as each year's four-digit block exhausts. The mark is not chosen: rule 48's new proviso requires it to be "generated randomly through the portal after verification of working certificate in Form 60 or Official identity card".

## Who can have one

Rule 47(1)(ca)-(cb), inserted by the same instrument: a working certificate in Form 60 for a private-sector applicant, whose employer declares "we have offices in four States/UTs or more"; an official identity card for a government employee. The series is voluntary ("opted voluntarily by the vehicle owner", rule 48 proviso) and non-transport only, since rule 51B's tax scheme is written for "non-transport vehicles".

## Other standard plates here

- [Standard HSRP](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/india/standard-hsrp-2004) (2004 to today)
- [Transport HSRP](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/india/transport-hsrp-2004) (2004 to today)
- [Standard](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/india/standard-1989) (1989 to 2003)
- [Transport](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/india/transport-1989) (1989 to 2003)

## Use it

- Plate image (SVG): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/in/in-bh-2021.svg
- Make it with your own text: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plate-generator/india?series=in-bh-2021
- API: `GET https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/in` returns this series as the entry with `"id": "in-bh-2021"` (https://vehiclesdb.com/api)

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Open data, CC BY 4.0: reuse it with a visible credit to VehiclesDB and a link (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/attribution). Plate images show sample serials and are not open data (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/image-license). Dataset commit db0ec0a: https://github.com/vehiclesdb/vehiclesdb