The Central Motor Vehicles Rules,1989
Section 38. Issue of duplicate certificate
(1) If at any time the trade certificate is lost or destroyed, its holder shall report to the police station in the jurisdiction of which the loss or destruction has occurred and intimate the fact in writing to the registering authority by whom the certificate was issued and apply in Form 18 to the said authority for a duplicate certificate accompanied by the appropriate fee as specified in rule 81.
(2) On receipt of an application alongwith the fee, the registering authority may issue a duplicate “Trade Certificate” clearly “marked “Duplicate”.
(3) If after the issue of a duplicate certificate the original is traced, the same shall be surrendered forthwith to the registering authority by which it was issued.