The owner of a vehicle can now nominate a person in the registration certificate so that the vehicle can be registered or transferred to the nominee after the owner’s death. The name of the nominee may be included at the time of registration of the vehicles and at a later date through an online application.

The process is otherwise quite cumbersome in the country.

According to rules notified by the ministry of road transport and highways in the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, the owner of a vehicle has to submit proof of the identity of the nominee in case the nominee is mentioned.

“If the owner of a motor vehicle dies, the person nominated in the certificate of registration or the person succeeding to the possession of the vehicle, as the case may be, may for a period of three months from the death of the owner, use the vehicle as if it has been transferred to him.

“The nominee has to inform the registering authority within 30 days of the death of the owner of his intention to use the vehicle,” the notification said.

The nominee shall apply in Form 31 within three months from the death of the owner of the vehicle to the registering authority for transfer of ownership to his name.

For a change in nominee in case of contingencies such as divorce or division of property, the owner may do so using an agreed standard operating procedure, it added.

At present, in the case of death of a registered owner, the procedure of transferring the vehicle to a nominee requires complying with a raft of procedures and frequent visits to different offices.

The ministry on November 27, 2020 had proposed to amend the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 to facilitate the owner of a vehicle for nominating a person in the registration certificate.