The Indian economy deregulated its oil price regime and moved from state-administered to market-linked pricing. This study examines the impact of deregulation on volatility transmission between international oil prices and Indian stock markets. The findings show that due to continual interventions in the form of taxation changes and price freeze during elections, not only did the short-term spill over of oil prices on stock markets strengthen, but the long-term spill over also continues to remain, despite oil price deregulation. This implies that after moving to market-determined pricing, there should be no tinkering with the oil-pricing mechanism by policymakers to ensure the desired stability in stock markets.