LUCKY DIGIT: Lalit Bagla and his wife on their 50th wedding anniversary last year, with their new Honda City with the old registration number

He considers the number one lucky and owns the oldest car numbers registered in Calcutta and Howrah — WBG 1 and WBH 1.

And he’s ready to go to any length to retain them, even after the introduction of computerised registration numbers.

Meet Lalit Bagla, 66, whose family has moved Calcutta and Delhi high courts more than 10 times since 1950 to retain the “lucky registration numbers” of its cars.

“I possess the oldest car numbers in the state, which in a way make me feel like the oldest citizen. It’s a matter of great pride for me and I am going to retain the numbers at any cost,” said Bagla, who has retired from business and lives in Howrah.

It all started in 1943, when Bagla’s father Satyanarayan Bagla bought a Dodge, BLH 1, from the then district magistrate of Howrah.

The district got its own vehicle registration department in 1950, following which the letters BL were replaced with WB and the digit code for Howrah was changed to “2”.

The authorities insisted that Bagla senior change the registration number of the car, but he moved Calcutta High Court against the order. After a long battle, the court ruled that the family could retain the number WBH 1.

In 1965, Bagla had bought a Fiat, WBG 1, from the government and the number has since been transferred to the cars he purchased later.

But for that, he had to move court to get past the public vehicles department (PVD)’s rules that prohibit transfer of numbers.

“We didn’t seek any favours from the government. These were special numbers allotted to government officials and VIPs in those days. We just happened to buy the cars from them and got the numbers transferred through court orders,” he explained.

The sexagenarian’s latest brush with the law came last year, when he bought a Honda City for his wife to celebrate their 50th marriage anniversary. The PVD refused to register it as WBG 1, quoting the “new rules” that all vehicles in the city should carry the code WB02, to be followed by a unique number.

The Baglas again moved high court, which ruled that the number should be allotted to them within two weeks, as there was no law preventing the government from doing so.

“I only want three letters and the digit 1 in my car number. ‘1’ is lucky for me,” said Bagla.

But the government doesn’t share his enthusiasm. “We made an exception in their case because of the court order. But if more people started making such demands, the computerised system of registration will go for a toss,” said transport secretary Sumantra Chowdhury.

In Delhi, too, the Baglas have a car with the number DLS 1, which they have retained after moving Delhi High Court a number of times.

What next? “I want a number like BLA 1, which Bidhan Chandra Roy used to have on his car,” said Bagla wistfully.