How to register a 50-year-old bike as a vintage vehicle in India

If your Bullet, Yezdi, Jawa or Rajdoot has crossed 50 years from the date of its first registration and is still in original form, you can register it as a vintage motor vehicle at your state RTO. You apply in Form 20, attach an insurance policy and the old RC, pay ₹20,000 for a fresh vintage registration, and the registering authority issues a certificate in Form 23A within 60 days. The plate reads XX VA YY followed by a number from 0001 to 9999, where XX is the state code and VA marks the bike as vintage. There is a catch at the end of this story, and it matters more than the fee.

The framework comes from the Central Motor Vehicles (Fifteenth Amendment) Rules, 2021, notified on 15 July 2021, which added a separate set of rules for vintage vehicles to the CMVR, 1989.

What qualifies, and what it costs

The definition covers two-wheelers and four-wheelers that have completed 50 or more years from the date of first registration and are maintained in their original form, with no substantial overhaul. A rebuilt frame or a modern engine swap works against you, because the RTO can inspect the machine for originality before it clears the file.

Fresh registration is ₹20,000. Re-registration is ₹5,000, and that is the figure most owners of an already registered old bike will be looking at. The certificate is valid for 10 years and is then renewable for five year periods. Vehicles already registered as vintage keep their original number and plate intact, so the VA series mainly applies to fresh cases and imports. Vintage vehicles are also exempt from the high security registration plate requirement.

The steps, in order

1. Fix the date of first registration. That means the old RC, or whatever record survives at the RTO that first registered the bike. For an imported machine, the bill of entry takes its place.
2. Put the bike back to standard. Original tank, frame, engine and gearbox matter here, because originality is the test, not cosmetic finish.
3. Buy an insurance policy. The application has to be accompanied by one, so the cover has to exist before the file goes in.
4. File Form 20 at the state registering authority with the fee, the insurance policy and the old RC or bill of entry.
5. Present the bike for inspection if the RTO asks.
6. Collect the certificate of registration in Form 23A. The rules give the authority 60 days from verification.
7. If you sell it later, both seller and buyer have to inform their registering authorities within 90 days of the transaction.

States are still catching up on the plumbing for this. In Himachal Pradesh, deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri said on 25 February 2026 that old vehicles would be classified as vintage and given a VA number, and that these vehicles would not be scrapped. That last point is the real draw for owners in cities where age-based bans and scrappage rules bite.

The catch, and who should skip it

A vintage registered vehicle shall not be driven or plied on the roads for regular purposes and shall not be used for any commercial purposes whatsoever. In plain terms, a VA plate is for runs, rallies, shows and display, not for your morning commute. So if your 1970s Bullet is still your daily ride, a vintage registration is the wrong box to tick.

It is the right box if the bike is a preserved original that mostly lives under a cover, comes out for club runs and museum events, and whose chief risk is being caught by scrappage and age rules rather than by wear. One more practical point for the family albums: establishing the first registration date is the hard part of this whole process, and it is worth doing before the last person who remembers the bike's history is gone.

Sources

• New rules for registration of Vintage Motor Vehicles issued, CarWale
• Central Motor Vehicles (Fifteenth Amendment) Rules, 2021, TeamLease RegTech
• MoRTH formalises registration process for vintage vehicles in India, ZigWheels
• Vintage vehicles in India get green signal for registration, Autocar Professional
• Himachal Pradesh to introduce special vintage vehicle registration, The News Mill