A driver who moves a car from Delhi, Chandigarh, or Haryana into Jammu and Kashmir should be able to complete the documents without a fight. 

Instead, that simple task has turned into a trip through several government counters, and often ends with a walk into the High Court. 

The dispute centers on a 9 percent road or token tax that officials demand on vehicles already registered and taxed somewhere else in India.

The question resurfaced this summer in Mohammad Maqbool Mir and Another v. Union Territory of J&K, a petition heard by the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh at Srinagar on July 8, 2026. 

The petitioners, represented by this writer, asked the court to order new J&K registration marks for their vehicles. They pointed to an earlier ruling, Zahoor Ahmad Bhat v. Government of J&K, as settled law on the point. 

The court disposed of the case by directing the ARTO in Pulwama to decide the applications within one month. 

That order settled the immediate dispute, but the larger one remained open. 

The Transport Department defended its demand by invoking Section 3 of the J&K Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1957, arguing that the 9 percent charge amounted to a road tax on vehicles using J&K’s roads, separate from anything decided in Zahoor Ahmad Bhat.

That earlier case, decided on April 29, 2021, drew a line the department has struggled to accept. 

A Division Bench of the High Court held that assigning a new registration mark is not the same as registering a vehicle for the first time. Under Section 46 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, a registration granted in one state holds good throughout India. Section 47 simply calls for an owner to apply for a new mark once a vehicle has stayed in another state or union territory for more than twelve months. 

The vehicle keeps its identity even though its plate changes. 

Since lifetime tax had already been........

© Kashmir Observer