Most people scrapping a car in Delhi worry about the price. The price matters, but it is the smaller half of the problem. The larger half is whether the registration is properly closed afterwards, and that comes down to one document.

The rule that puts your car here

Delhi ends a diesel vehicle at 10 years and a petrol vehicle at 15, regardless of condition. A car past that date cannot legally be driven or parked on a public road anywhere in the NCR. It does not matter that it starts, that it passed a test last year, or that it has done 40,000 km. The date is the date.

This is why so many perfectly usable cars sit under covers in Delhi basements. Their owners are not being sentimental. They simply have a vehicle that is illegal to use and awkward to dispose of, and no obvious next step.

What an RVSF is, and why it matters

A Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility is a yard licensed under the Motor Vehicles (Registration and Functions of Vehicle Scrapping Facility) Rules. The licence is the whole point: only an RVSF can issue the document that formally ends your vehicle's registration.

An unlicensed yard can absolutely take your car and hand you cash. What it cannot do is close the registration. The vehicle stays on the register in your name, and anything done with it, or with its number plate, remains attached to you.

The Certificate of Deposit

When an RVSF accepts a vehicle, it issues a Certificate of Deposit. This is the document that matters. It does three things:

It records that the vehicle was deposited for scrapping
It is the basis on which the RTO cancels the registration
It carries a concession on road tax when you buy your next vehicle, and several manufacturers add a discount of their own against it

If a yard offers you cash and no certificate, you are not scrapping the car. You are giving it away and keeping the liability.

The RC is the thing you cannot work around

An RVSF cannot issue a Certificate of Deposit without the Registration Certificate. This is the single most common thing that stops a scrapping job halfway.

If you have the original RC, this is straightforward. If you have only a duplicate, it is usually still workable. If you have no RC at all, the honest answer is that you need to apply for a duplicate from the RTO that issued it before anything else can happen, and that takes time.

Tell whoever is collecting the vehicle about this before they arrive, not after. A tow truck that turns up and cannot legally take the car has wasted everyone's morning.

What else to have ready

Insurance papers, if you still have them
A copy of your ID matching the name on the RC
If the registered owner has died, the succession paperwork
If there was a loan, the NOC from the financier showing the hypothecation is cleared

That last one catches people out years later. A car with an uncleared hypothecation on the record cannot be deregistered cleanly even after it has been physically scrapped.

What the car is actually worth

Scrap value is set by weight and by completeness, not by model or service history. A vehicle with its engine, gearbox, wheels, battery and catalytic converter still fitted is worth substantially more than the same vehicle after a workshop has removed the useful parts.

This is worth knowing because you will often be offered money for parts first. Sometimes that adds up. More often it does not, once you account for the effort and the much lower figure a stripped shell fetches. Get a number for the complete car before you let anyone take anything off it.

We set out the detail on what a scrap car is worth in Delhi, including why a diesel is usually worth slightly more and why body damage barely moves the figure.

The order to do it in

Find the RC. Everything else waits on this.
Clear any hypothecation, if there was a loan.
Get a price for the complete vehicle, before removing parts.
Confirm the yard is an RVSF and will issue a Certificate of Deposit.
Take payment before the vehicle leaves your address.
Keep the certificate. Check the registration status online a few weeks later.

Common questions

Can I scrap a car without the RC? Not through a registered facility, because the Certificate of Deposit cannot be issued without it. Apply for a duplicate RC first.

Does the car need to run? No. Most end-of-life vehicles do not start. It only affects how the vehicle is recovered, which is our problem rather than yours.

What if the car is in a basement? Say so when booking. Basement recovery needs different equipment from a kerbside tow.

Do I get money for a car that has been sitting for years? Yes. Weight does not evaporate. A car that has not moved since 2015 is worth roughly what its metal and remaining components are worth today.

If you are ready to move on it, scrapping your old car in Delhi starts with a few questions about the vehicle and where it is parked.

How to Scrap a Car in Delhi: RC, RVSF and the Certificate of Deposit