India Vehicle Registration OCR with Python SDK

Reading the India registration certificate (RC)

Indian vehicles are registered by state Regional Transport Offices in the national VAHAN system. The RC, issued as a smart card in most states and as an older book in some records, carries the registration number (for example MH01AB1234), the owner's name, chassis number (VIN), engine number, maker and model, fuel type and registration dates. Layouts differ by state, and lenders, insurers and fleet operators still retype these fields from photos.

A Server-Side Python Workflow

The StructOCR Vehicle Registration OCR API returns standardized fields for every country (VIN, plate, make, model, year and colour) and a localized block for country-specific fields. Country-specific fields such as engine number, fuel and owner name are returned under localized.generic.unmapped_fields when printed. For the business use cases, see Indian RC full-field OCR and Indian RC VIN OCR.

Where Teams Use It

• Vehicle loans: Read the RC during loan underwriting and match the chassis number with the invoice.
• Motor insurance: Prefill policy data from the RC at renewal or claim.
• Used-car platforms: Capture registration details when a seller lists a vehicle.

India Vehicle Registration OCR with Python SDK

The official Python SDK reads a local file and calls /v1/vehicle-registration. The API reference documents every field.

Prerequisite: `pip install structocr`; set the server-side `STRUCTOCR_API_KEY` environment variable.

import os
from structocr import StructOCR

client = StructOCR(os.environ["STRUCTOCR_API_KEY"])
result = client.scan_vehicle_registration("registration.jpg")

if result.get("success"):
    data = result["data"]
    std = data["standardized"]
    print(std["vin"], std["plate"]["formatted"], std["make_normalized"], std["year"])
    print(data["localized"])
else:
    print(result.get("error"))

JSON Response Example

An illustrative response with fictional values.

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "document": {
      "country_code": "IN",
      "document_type": "VEHICLE_REGISTRATION",
      "confidence_score": 0.95
    },
    "standardized": {
      "vin": "MA3EWDE1S00123456",
      "plate": {
        "number": "MH01AB1234",
        "letters_normalized": null,
        "formatted": "MH 01 AB 1234"
      },
      "make_raw": "MARUTI SUZUKI",
      "make_normalized": "MARUTI SUZUKI",
      "model_raw": "SWIFT VXI",
      "model_normalized": "SWIFT",
      "year": 2021,
      "color_raw": "WHITE",
      "color_normalized": "WHITE"
    },
    "localized": {
      "generic": {
        "unmapped_fields": {
          "engine_number": "K12MN1234567",
          "fuel": "PETROL",
          "owner_name": "RAHUL SHARMA",
          "registration_date": "2021-03-15"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}