New Delhi. There will be no toll tax on the Delhi-Noida Direct (DND) flyway and it will now be toll-free. The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the petition regarding imposing toll tax on the flyway. The petition was filed by a private company against the order of the Allahabad High Court.
In this petition, the 2016 order of the Allahabad High Court was challenged, which asked to make the flyway toll free. The court reprimanded the Noida Authority along with the Uttar Pradesh and Delhi governments, who illegally handed over the project to the Noida Toll Bridge Company Limited (NTBCL). The Supreme Court said, “The contract given to NTBCL was unfair, unjust and contrary to constitutional norms.”
A bench of Justices Suryakant and Ujjal Bhuiyan said there was no reason to continue collecting tolls. Justice Suryakant wrote a 53-page judgment, rejecting all arguments of NTBCL, including claims of additional recovery of ₹30 crore presented by senior advocate A M Singhvi. He said that NTBCL collected much more money than the project cost, which led to “unfair benefit to NTBCL in exchange for the suffering of the public”. The court said that the contracts with NTBCL were full of such unfair and impractical conditions, which “not only shock this court, but are against public policy.”
Recovery completed by 2016, no reason to continue toll
The court said that NTBCL had recovered the project cost, maintenance expenses and sufficient profit on its initial investment by March 31, 2016. There was no justification for collecting user charges/toll after that. Justice Suryakant said, “IL&FS and NTBCL collected hundreds of crores of rupees from the public in the name of essential public infrastructure. This was not possible unless there was collusion between both the state governments and Noida officials, who ignored the contractual obligations.”
Pointing to corruption, the court made strong comments on the formula for project cost escalation and the process of increasing leases to collect user charges. “It is unimaginable that several levels of governments, including the most accomplished financial experts, could not see that this formula would put an undue burden on the public.”
CAG report revelations
The court said, “The CAG report has revealed shocking facts that the directors of NTBCL, including Pradeep Puri (who was a senior bureaucrat), did not shoulder any responsibility. Yet, all their expenses, including high salaries, were added to the total cost of the project.”
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