Pun-intended: Tata Punch owner slapped with Rs 500 challan for clever joke

A Greater Noida based owner of a Tata Punch SUV has reportedly been served with a fine of Rs 500 after an image of his vehicle bearing multiple stickers including cast-based stick ons went viral on social media. Most interestingly, the owner had turned the chrome Punch badging on the tailgate of the SUV into a pun. He got the words ‘Sir’ stickered before the P and ‘Ji’ stickered after the H letter of the OEM badging. The desired result was that drivers behind him would read ‘Sir-Punch-Ji’. While the owner gets full marks on creativity, law enforcement was least impressed and issued a challan to the owner as per an India Today report.

For those who the pun may elude, the owner effectively fixed the stickers so that rear drivers would read ’Sarpanch Ji’, which means head of a village. Moreover, another sticker with the word ‘Gurjar’ was flanked on one end of the tailgate as well, this was a cast-based sticker that is illegal to fix on a vehicle in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier in August 2023, having cast-based stickers on your vehicle was made illegal by the Uttar Pradesh government.

Considering the government’s directive to impose up to Rs 21,000 challan on people who use cast-based stickers and other symbols on their vehicles, it seems that the Greater Noida Punch owner’s pun has still costed him a reasonable penalty. As per The Motor Vehicles Act, motorists are not allowed to have any stickers, cast-based symbols or messages written on their vehicles under section 179 (1).