The Supreme Court of India bench headed Chief Justice J S Khehar today granted eight more weeks to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to complete the audit of the Delhi Noida Direct (DND) flyway.
In meantime, the DND will continue to remain toll free.
On last November, the three Judge bench of apex court has directed Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to examine the relevant records of the DND flyway. The CAG directed to verify the claim of the Petitioner that the Total Cost of the Project has not been recovered and submit a report within four weeks.
On October 28th, the Allahabad High Court expelled the toll on the Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND). The High Court decision was on a petition filed by the Federation of NOIDA Residents Welfare Association.
The division bench comprising of Justice Arun Tandon and Justice Sunita Agarwal 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.” Resultantly, it was held that the selection of Concessionaire in the facts of the case is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and is found to be unfair and unjust. However, the Court fund it is not necessary to nullify the entire Concession Agreement”.
Read the full text of the order below.
