New Registration Rules for Vintage and Classic Vehicles Announced!

Nov 28, 2020 2 min read
New Registration Rules for Vintage and Classic Vehicles Announced!

Now vintage car owners will also have to take the permission of RTOs to buy or sell vehicles.

In a bid to preserve the heritage of old motor vehicles in India, Ministry of Road Transport has published a notification with regards to registration certificate process for vintage vehicles in the country,

Under the new law, the government has defined vintage vehicle as those four wheeler or two-wheeler that are more than 50 years of age from the original date of registration. Technically, that includes any vehicle manufactured before 1969. This includes domestic as well as imported vehicles. The proposed policy also envisages that fee for issuing a new certificate would cost the owner Rs 20,000 and if the Vintage Motor Vehicles State Committee (VMVSC) approves the car, it would be valid for 10 years. Thereafter, the renewal of the registration would cost Rs 5,000.

Format of new plates

According to brand new rules, the regulation of classic and vintage motor vehicle mentions that these vehicles will display high-security registration format in 10 digit alphanumeric format that Indian vehicles will receive.

The new format is going to be in the form of ‘XX VA YY ****’ where XX represent the the State code, VA stands for vintage vehicle and YY will be a two letter series followed by a number from 01 to 09, as assigned by the State registering authority. Thus, a vehicle registered in New Delhi may read: DL VA 12 xxxx. Unlike modern cars, this new distinctive series would not have a separate number in their registration plates to denote certain area RTOs but will instead be a state-based plate.

When Can Vintage Cars Be Driven?

You can’t drive your vintage car to work like every other day. There are terms and conditions connected to their use. The draft notification states that this Vintage motor vehicle is allowed to run on public roads just for display under a wider variety of circumstances, excluding commercial use.

The government had earlier made special allowance for taking part in events, historical tours, ceremonial occasions. They can even be used for technical research or cinematography. The most special reason which we suspect is likely going to be the most used reason is refueling and maintenance.

Disqualification Criteria

The new law rules also states that the age alone will not be the only qualifier for vehicle applying for a new registration certificate. The vehicle needs to be in its original form without any substantial modification to its chassis, body shell and engine. The state VMVSC is responsible to oversee these registration formalities could reject the registration request if a vehicle is found to not meet the criteria under the specified rules. This was highlighted by varied federations and was mentioned at the 55th meeting of Central Motor Vehicles Rules.

New buying and selling regulations

It states that sale or purchase of these vehicles will be permitted only if it is provided the buyer and the seller inform their respective state transport authorities for sale or purchase, within a period of 90 days before the deal.

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