Documents you need to scrap a car in India — and what to do if the RC is lost

Scrapping a vehicle is a transfer of ownership to a licensed facility followed by cancellation of a government registration. That is why the paperwork matters more than people expect, and why a facility that offers to take your car with no documents at all is not doing you a favour. Here is the list, and the workarounds for the situations that come up most.

The standard checklist

• Original Registration Certificate (RC) — the smart card or the book.
• Owner's photo ID and address proof — Aadhaar is the usual pair; PAN is often asked for alongside it.
• Bank details for the payment — a cancelled cheque or a passbook page in the registered owner's name.
• Insurance copy, if the policy is still live, so you can claim any refund on the unexpired term.
• Latest PUC certificate, where you still have it.
• Form 35 and a No Objection Certificate from the financier, if the vehicle was ever bought on loan.
• Written confirmation that no challans are pending — check on the Parivahan or state traffic portal and clear anything outstanding.

If you have lost the RC

This is the single most common obstacle and it is solvable. The route is to apply to the RTO for a duplicate RC — this means a police report or non-traceable certificate for the lost document, an application in the prescribed form, an affidavit, and the fee. Some RTOs will process a scrapping case on the strength of the police report plus an affidavit and the RTO's own record of the vehicle, without waiting for the duplicate card to be printed. Practice varies by state and by office, so ask the facility to tell you which route your RTO accepts before you start.

If the loan was closed years ago but the hypothecation was never removed

Extremely common, and it stops the file dead. The RC still shows a financier, so the RTO treats the vehicle as encumbered. You need the NOC from the bank or NBFC confirming the loan is closed, plus Form 35. If the lender has merged into another institution — which after twenty years is likely — the NOC comes from the successor entity. Start this early; it is the step that takes the longest.

If the owner has died

The vehicle is part of the estate and cannot be scrapped in the deceased's name alone. Transfer of ownership to the legal heir comes first — death certificate, succession or legal-heir certificate, and the RTO's transfer form — and the scrapping is then done by the new registered owner. It adds a step, but it is the only route that produces a valid deregistration.

If the vehicle belongs to a company

• Board resolution or an authorisation letter naming the person authorised to sign.
• That person's photo ID.
• The company's GST registration and PAN, for the invoice.
• Company bank details for the payment — payment into an individual's account against a company-owned vehicle creates an accounting problem for you later.

If the vehicle is registered in another state

You can scrap it — a registered facility can handle a vehicle from another state, which matters for the many Delhi NCR and Haryana vehicles scrapped in Rajasthan. What changes is the deregistration paperwork, which is routed to the RTO that issued the registration. Expect the cancellation to take longer than a local vehicle, and keep the deposit certificate safe in the meantime.

Send us a photo of your RC before you commit to anything and we will tell you exactly which of the above applies to your vehicle, including the awkward cases. It takes a few minutes and it saves a wasted trip.