The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to interfere with a Punjab and Haryana High Court order stopping toll collection on Delhi-Gurgaon expressway for 15 days to ensure free flow of traffic till the midnight of 19 September. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation had approached the Supreme Court for stay of the high court order, saying that it was losing a toll tax of Rs 25 lakh per day. The civic body had said that the interim order of the high court had led to serious financial crunch for the civic agency by depriving it of crores of rupees in revenue.
A bench of justices D K Jain and Madan B Lokur asked the municipal body to approach the high court for relief. The senior advocate Ravi Shankar Prasad, representing the civic body, argued about the losses and made pleas for allowing it to collect taxes at least on commercial vehicles. The bench, however, was not impressed.
Angered by the frequent traffic chaos on the highway, the high court had on 4 September restrained the Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited from collecting toll tax on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway for 15 days, saying that it had not been able to ensure free flow of traffic on the road. It had also directed the Haryana government to provide dedicated police personnel at the toll plaza to ensure that security measures are in place.
The high court had expressed displeasure at the concessionaire not being able to control traffic snarls at the busy toll plaza, which is used by tens of thousands of vehicles every day. It had directed the National Highways Authority of India to convene a meeting with the concessionaire and the Haryana government to find a permanent solution to the traffic snarls at the plaza. The court had also pointed out that the differences among the three sides led to unnecessary harassment of commuters.