The Punjab and Haryana high court, on Monday, refused to vacate the stay on collection of toll tax at the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway toll plaza and issued a notice of motion to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on an application filed by the municipal corporation of Delhi (MCD) seeking permission to collect toll tax from commercial vehicles.
The case came up for hearing before a division bench comprising acting chief justice Jasbir Singh and justice Rakesh Kumar Jain on Monday. The MCD submitted that it was facing huge losses on a daily basis on account of the high court's stay.
The high court had, on September 4, restrained the concessionaire from collecting toll tax for a period of 15 days.
It was also submitted that after the high court stay, most of the commercial vehicles had started entering Delhi from Gurgaon just to avoid toll tax, thus causing huge rush on the road and losses to the MCD. The MCD also submitted that the toll plaza concessionaire, Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd (DGSCL), had not informed the MCD about the ongoing proceedings in the case before the high court.
But the bench refused to extend any interim relief to the MCD. It said the MCD was only interested in tax collection and not about the problems faced by commuters on a daily basis.
The bench questioned the counsel appearing for the MCD as to whether the civic body had ever raised or discussed the issue of long traffic jams at the toll plaza and the inconvenience being faced by daily commuters.
But the bench refused to extend any interim relief to the MCD. It said the MCD was only interested in tax collection and not about the problems faced by commuters on a daily basis.
The bench questioned the counsel appearing for the MCD as to whether the civic body had ever raised or discussed the issue of long traffic jams at the toll plaza and the inconvenience being faced by daily commuters.
The case was adjourned for next hearing to September 20 with directions to the NHAI to file a detailed reply.