E-Paper
HC stays Punjab govt’s decision to remove two toll plazas
The Punjab and Haryana high court has stayed Punjab government’s decision of removal of two toll plazas on state highway Bhawanigarh-Sunam-Bhikhi-Kaur- Kot Shamir- Bathinda road (BSBKD).
The Punjab and Haryana high court has stayed Punjab government’s decision of removal of two toll plazas on state highway Bhawanigarh-Sunam-Bhikhi-Kaur- Kot Shamir- Bathinda road (BSBKD).
The high court bench of justice Vinod S Bhardwaj acted on the plea of Prakash Asphaltings and Toll Highways (India) Ltd, the concessionaire challenging January 3 communication to the firm to remove toll structures within 24 hours.
As per plea, establishment of the toll plazas for five years on the project road was a part of the scope of work as per agreement of November, 2018. There was change in scope of work and the state was called upon to take a decision. But it did not act. Numerous representations/reminders were sent by concessionaire pointing out the loss being incurred by the firm. However, the same were not responded to and on January 3, the firm was told to remove all structures within 24 hours. The authorities did not even wait for this timeline given to be over and demolition was started, the court was told during the hearing on January 5, detailed order of which was released on Monday.
Their counsel, senior advocate, Akshay Bhan had submitted that there had been no concessionaire default which would entitle the state to terminate/suspend the concession agreement. Moreover, the letter sent also does not make reference to any of the provision/clauses in the agreement under which such powers were exercised and the order was passed, it was informed.
The state’s counsel had told court that a decision to terminate the agreement has already been taken. However, the government counsel had admitted that decision was yet to be communicated to the firm. The government counsel had further informed the court that the structure has already been demolished and removal was necessary to avoid occurrence of any accidents.
The court noted that the government counsel failed to make a reference to any specific provision that had been invoked by the authorities while issuing January 3 communication.
To a query from the court about availability of any data to substantiate the apprehensions about accidents, the government counsel had sought to verify the same.
The bench of justice Vinod S Bhardwaj while deferring hearing for March 16 asked to maintain quo about the existence of the toll structures in question till the next date of hearing and further directed that adequate safety measures be taken and police be deployed to caution the drivers to minimise the possibility of accidents.
