Any motorised boat found plying on Dal Lake will be held to be contempt of the Court’s order, the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has warned while barring fuel-powered motorboats, motorised shikaras and jet skis until further orders.
Srinagar: Until further orders, no motorboat, whether a shikara motorboat or a fuel-operated jet ski, may be operated in Dal Lake, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has directed in a petition filed by boat operators [Mohammad Rafiq Mir and Others v. Union Territory of J&K and Others].
The order of October 14, 2026 in WP(C) No. 3196/2025 was passed by a Division Bench of Chief Justice Dr. Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Justice Rajesh Sekhri. The next hearing is on October 30, 2026.
The ban and who must enforce it
Enforcement has been left to the Lake Conservation and Management Authority (LCMA), the Tourism Department and the Police. The operative direction reads:
no motorboat, whether it be a shikara motorboat, or Jet Ski which operates by fuel, is operated in the Dal Lake until further orders.
Should any motorised boat be allowed to ply or be reported to ply, the Court said, that will be held to be contempt of the order. Boats used by the administration and authorities for emergency services, law and order, disaster management and safety are exempt.
Senior Additional Advocate General Mohsin S. Qadri has been asked to place before the Court a comprehensive policy for motorised boats, framed in consultation with experts, that minimises pollution while keeping a balance with tourism. He is also to explore whether complete motorisation can be substituted by solarised e-engines.
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From a licensing dispute to a lake in trouble
The petition itself was about licences. Motorboat operators complained about how permits to run boats on the lake are granted and renewed, arguing that the framework lacked published criteria and transparency, and that shifting licensing from the tourism authorities to the Regional Transport Office had left operators in uncertainty. They asked the Court to direct that whatever criteria apply be uniform, transparent and environmentally balanced.
For its part, the administration told the Court that tourism licences had not been reviewed at any time and that it would take a scientific, expert-based approach to motorised licensing on the lake. The Bench then moved to the larger question of the lake’s health.
Policy on the lake must balance tourism, pollution control and uniformity among stakeholders, the Bench observed, adding that lake systems have become a growing concern for civilisation. It then pointed to a possible way forward:
solar boats and electric boats could be a solution for balancing the equities between tourism and the sustenance of lakes.
The Court’s earlier look at the lake
This is not the first time the High Court has dealt with the lake’s condition. In December 2018, a Division Bench then headed by Chief Justice Gita Mittal was told by an expert committee led by E. Sreedharan that Dal Lake might not survive beyond 30 years if existing practices continued. The committee pointed to houseboats, sewage, floating gardens and waste as sources of pollution, and the Court passed a string of interim directions on houseboats, sewage treatment and encroachment. The 2018 report did not record any direction on motorboats.
What the order means for operators
A petition that began as a complaint about opaque licensing has produced an interim ban on fuel-powered boats across the lake. Operators who sought clarity on permits now face a blanket restriction while the administration frames a policy, and the Court has signalled that clean-energy boats may be the route to resume operations.
The order is interim, and the licensing challenge has not been finally decided. What follows will be shaped by the policy the administration files on October 30.
Case Title: Mohammad Rafiq Mir and Others v. Union Territory of J&K and Others [WP(C) No. 3196/2025]
Bench: Chief Justice Dr. Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Justice Rajesh Sekhri, High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh
Date of Order: October 14, 2026
Appearances: Senior Advocate B.A. Bashir with Advocate Falak Bashir for the petitioners; Senior AAG Mohsin S. Qadri with Maha Majeed, Assisting Counsel, and Waseem Gull, GA, for the respondents; Qazi Irfan, RTO Kashmir, present in person