The Supreme Court on Friday has refused to grant stay order to the Allahabad High Court order removing toll on the Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) flyway. The High Court decision was on a petition filed by the Federation of NOIDA Residents Welfare Association. The order was a great relief for Delhi-Noida commuters.
Against the High Court order, the Noida Toll Bridge Company Ltd. has approached the Supreme Court. A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur decided to hold a detailed hearing on November 7. Reportedly, the Court may also consider Noida toll company’s offer to have CAG audit its cost-expenditures.
Earlier the High Court found the levy of toll tax as arbitrary and illegal and observed that “certain clauses of the Concession Agreement are affecting the public at large i.e. commuters who are subjected to pay toll for the use of public road in perpetuity due to wrongful arbitrary terms and conditions of the contract, we have no hesitation to hold that the offending clauses can be severed from the rest of the agreement without affecting the contract as a whole and leaving the Concessionaire and Noida Authority to perform their part of contract.”
