Twitter user Anil Talwar, whose bio states he is an army veteran, tweeted an image of a vehicle’s number plate that starts with “BH”. Talwar claimed that the “BH” series can be driven in all Indian States. Several people have replied to him stating that they too would get their cars registered under this series. Talwar’s tweet has gained over 14,000 likes. It is worth noting, in the replies, Talwar has clarified that the car in the image is not his.

Several others also picked up the photo and shared it with the same claim.

Several Facebook accounts further amplified the claim (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). While these posts don’t have many likes, the pages or the groups where it has been shared have several thousand followers.

Alt News has received several requests to fact-check this claim on our WhatsApp helpline number (+91 76000 11160).

Partial context

Alt News performed a keyword search using the following syntax: ‘BH Number plate site:gov.in’ on Google. Using ‘site:gov.in’ restricts the search results to the Government of India websites.

We found a 2021 press note by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways titled ‘Government introduced a new registration mark for new vehicles тАЬBharat series (BH-series)тАЭ to facilitate seamless transfer of vehicles’. While a vehicle bearing this registration mark shall not require the assignment of a new registration mark when the owner of the vehicle shifts from one State to another, the series is accessible to everyone in India.

The viral post does not share this context. Several people have commented on Talwar’s post stating that they too will apply for the series.

The press note informs, “This vehicle registration facility under тАЬBharat series (BH-series)тАЭ will be available on voluntary basis to Defense personnel, employees of Central Government/ State Government/ Central/ State Public Sector Undertakings and private sector companies/organizations, which have their offices in four or more States/Union territories.”

To sum it up, several social media users have used an image of a car with BH-series registration without the context that only certain people can apply for the series.

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About the Author

ЁЯЩП Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.