Second-hand car dealers to be deemed owners under new MORTH proposal

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a draft notification where it states it will be making amends to Chapter III of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989. The notice mentions that pre-owned car dealers will be deemed as owners of the vehicles they have in inventory.

• Dealers will have to maintain a trip register of each vehicle
• Such vehicles can only ply the road for test drives, maintenance

The owner of the vehicle, who is selling the car to a dealer will need to notify the Regional Transport Office (RTO), either via online or offline mediums about the sale of the vehicle and this will make the dealer a registered owner.

Once in possession, used car dealers will need to get an authorisation certificate for registered vehicles which will be valid for five years. Dealers will have to maintain a trip register for each vehicle in their inventory, and such vehicles can only ply the road for test drives, maintenance, repair work and updating the pollution under control (PUC) certificates.

Furthermore, the notification mentions that the used car dealer will be solely responsible for all accidents once the authorisation certificate has been issued. There is also a provision in the notification, that if the RTO finds that the dealer has not complied with any of the criteria mentioned, their authorisation certificate may get suspended or cancelled altogether.

After the authorisation certificate has been issued to a dealer, they will be able to apply for renewal of registration certificates (RC), duplicate RC, certificate of fitness, no objection certificate (NOC) and transfer of ownership.

MoRTH’s new notification, once implemented, will help instil confidence in buyers and sellers of used cars. Many have faced issues such as late transfer of ownership, forged or incomplete documentation and wrongly issued challans.