SRINAGAR: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has determined that the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 does not require re-registration or additional fees for vehicles brought into the Union Territory from other states.
Justice Javed Iqbal Wani ruled that the Nine per cent token tax imposed on a vehicle brought from Haryana to Jammu and Kashmir was illegal and discriminatory.
The case began when petitioner Ishfaq Ahmad Tramboo, a resident of Srinagar, brought his vehicle, originally registered in Gurgaon, Haryana, to Jammu and Kashmir in October 2023. Tramboo sought to register the vehicle with local authorities for use in the UT for more than 12 months.
The local transport authority demanded a 9 per cent token tax on the vehicle’s value, approximately Rs. 4.00 lakhs, as a condition for issuing a new registration mark. Tramboo contested this demand through his counsel, Mr. Hakim Suhail Ishtiaq, arguing that the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 did not support such a fee.
The respondents defended the tax based on Section 3 of the J&K Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1957, which they claimed allowed such a charge.
Justice Wani reviewed relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and found that the Act requires only one registration for a vehicle, valid throughout India. The Act does not provide for re-registration or additional fees when a vehicle moves to another state or UT, apart from specific provisions related to assigning a new registration mark after 12 months.
The court clarified that the JK Motor Vehicle Taxation Act, 1957 does not affect the registration process under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. It upheld a previous Division Bench judgment in Zahoor Ahmad Bhat vs. Government of JK, which stated that lifetime tax could not be levied based on a vehicle’s presumed extended stay in the UT.
The Court ruled in favor of the petitioner, directing the authorities to issue a new registration mark without the nine per cent token tax. The authorities were also permitted to seek a refund of the token tax from the Haryana registration authority if needed.
