DND flyway to remain toll-free, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the Delhi-Noida-Direct (DND) flyway will be toll-free as it dismissed a plea by a private firm challenging the 2016 decision of the Allahabad High Court order asking it to stop collecting tolls from commuters.

The decision will benefit lakhs of people who commute daily on the flyway.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan held that awarding a contract to private firm Noida Toll Bridge Company Ltd (NTBCL) to collect tolls from commuters plying on the DND flyway was unjust, unfair and arbitrary.

"There is no reason for the collection of the user or toll fee to continue. We hold that the agreement (for toll collection) is invalid,” the bench said.

It pulled up the NOIDA authority for delegating toll collection to private firm NTBCL, which did not have any prior experience and said it had resulted in unjust enrichment.

The bench said NOIDA overstepped its authority by delegating the powers to NTBCL to collect or levy fees and it has led the general public to part with hundreds of crores of rupees.

The high court, in October 2016, had ruled that there would be no toll collected henceforth from those using the 9.2 km-long, eight-lane Delhi-Noida Direct flyway. The order was passed as the high court allowed a PIL by the Federation of Noida Residents' Welfare Association.

The PIL, filed in 2012, had challenged the "levy and collection of toll in the name of user fee by the Noida Toll Bridge Company".

In an over 100-page judgment, the high court had held, "the user fee which is being levied/realised is not supported by the legal provisions relied upon by the Concessionaire (Noida Toll Bridge Company), Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (promoter and developer of the project) and the Noida Authority."

It had said the "right to levy and collect user fee from the commuters as conferred upon the Concessionaire under the concession agreement suffers from excessive delegation and is contrary to the provisions of the UP Industrial Development Act".

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