SC leaves it to high court to decide on DND toll

New Delhi/Noida: The Supreme Court has refused to restrain the Noida Toll Bridge Company Ltd (NTBCL) from collecting toll on the DND Flyway and urged the Allahabad high court to rule within three months on a plea by a residents' group challenging the levy.
"We will request the high court to dispose of the PIL in three months and, if that is not possible, then your plea for interim relief will be considered," a bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said on Thursday.
The Federation of Noida Residents Welfare Association (FONRWA) has moved the apex court challenging the high court order by which it had refused to restrain NTBCL from collecting toll. FONRWA members said a PIL had been filed at the high court on November 16, 2012, for revocation of the concession agreement between the Noida Authority and NTBCL, as "it has been executed against public interest".
"FONRWA also filed three stay applications in 2013, seeking restriction on NTBCL from collecting toll until our PIL was disposed of by the high court," its president NP Singh said. "Our three stay applications were not considered by the high court. Hence, we had filed a special leave petition in Supreme Court," he added.
The plea, filed through advocate Ranjit Saxena, contends various clauses of the concessionaire agreement between the Noida Authority and NTBCL were in favour of the toll collecting firm which, it claimed, has already earned nearly four times of its total project cost.
Several social organisations, including Noida Vikas Manch, Maulik Bharat and Janhit Morcha, have threatened to stage a protest at the DND on July 17, seeking a stop to toll collection.