How to check a vehicle scrapping facility is genuinely government-registered

You are handing over a vehicle registered in your name to someone who will destroy it. If they are not licensed, the destruction is unrecorded, the registration is never cancelled, and everything that later happens under that number is still legally yours. Verification takes about ten minutes. Do it before the vehicle moves, not after.

1. Find the facility on the government list

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways publishes the list of registered vehicle scrapping facilities on the national vehicle-scrapping portal. Search for the facility by name and by state. If it is not on that list, it is not an RVSF, whatever the signboard says. Registered facilities operate under the Motor Vehicles (Registration and Functions of Vehicle Scrapping Facility) Rules, 2021, and the registration is granted to a specific company at a specific address — check that both match the place you are actually dealing with.

2. Ask to see the registration certificate itself

A licensed operator will produce it without hesitation, along with the state pollution control board's consent to operate, which is a separate approval covering depollution and hazardous waste. A facility that is evasive about paperwork it is legally required to hold is telling you something.

3. Confirm they issue both certificates, in writing

• Certificate of Deposit (COD) — issued when the vehicle is deposited, carries the discount benefit on your next vehicle.
• Certificate of Vehicle Scrapping (CVS) — issued after dismantling, evidences destruction and supports cancellation of the registration.

Ask specifically whether the certificates are generated on the government portal against your vehicle number. That is the difference between a real certificate and a printed page.

4. Check the business is a real registered entity

Ask for the GST registration number and verify it on the GST portal's taxpayer search. It takes a minute and confirms the legal name behind the trading name. Insist on a proper invoice for the transaction and a traceable payment — a bank transfer or cheque in the registered owner's name — rather than loose cash.

5. Verify afterwards that the registration was actually cancelled

This is the step almost everyone skips. A few weeks after scrapping, look up your vehicle number on the Parivahan portal and confirm the record shows the vehicle as scrapped or the registration as cancelled. Until it does, the job is not finished. A good facility will expect this question and will tell you when to check.

The five-question script

1. Are you on the MoRTH registered facility list, and under what name?
2. Can I see your registration certificate and your pollution board consent?
3. Will I get both a COD and a CVS, generated on the government portal?
4. How and when am I paid, and will I get an invoice?
5. Who confirms to me that the RC has been cancelled, and when?

Any legitimate facility, including this one, should be able to answer all five without pausing. If the answers are vague, keep the vehicle and call someone else.