By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday declined to interfere with a Punjab and Haryana High Court order making the Gurgaon-Delhi expressway toll-free, allegedly resulting in a loss to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
Petitioner civic agency said that because of the high court order making Gurgaon-Delhi expressway toll-free, it was losing a daily revenue of Rs.25 lakh as it was being prevented from collecting toll tax from commercial vehicles.
Asking senior counsel Ravi Shankar Prasad, appearing for the civic agency, to approach the high court for relief, the apex court bench of Justice D.K. Jain and Justice J.S. Khehar said: “We are very confident that they will pass an appropriate order.”
The court said this when Prasad told the court that the high court passed the order without affording an opportunity to his client to present its case. The order making Gurgaon-Delhi expressway toll free was passed behind my back, Prasad told the court.
The court told him that he could go to the high court and it would be considered.
“I can’t be deprived to collect the tax from the commercial vehicles,” Prasad said.
The court said: “It is not that if we entertain (the petition), we will give you an interim order.”
Prasad told the court that Haryana Police were not allowing the corporation to collect the toll.
The high court Sep 4 suspended the collection of toll on the expressway’s toll plaza for 15 days.
The high court order came in the midst of the public hue and cry over traffic congestion at the Gurgaon-Delhi Expressway bottlenecks at the toll plaza.
The high court order came after the private operator managing the toll plaza and the National Highways Authority of India failed to ease the problem of congestion on the expressway during peak office hours.