HC vacates its stay order on collection of toll

The Madras High Court has vacated its stay order on collection of toll from vehicles at Paranur toll plaza on GST Road near Chengalpattu.
The interim injunction order granted by a vacation bench of the court on May 8 was vacated by another vacation bench yesterday.
A bench of Justice M M Sundresh and Justice K Ravichandrabaabu, concurring with the submissions of NHAI's senior counsel P Wilson and modifying an order of the earlier bench, however, directed the NHAI and the contractor collecting toll to deposit the collection being made now in a separate bank account.
"In order to protect the interest of the parties, we are of the view that the vacate stay-petitioners will have to deposit collection to be made in a separate account," the court said.

The matter relates to a PIL of advocate C Govind Chandrasekhar, who said the very existence of the Paranur toll plaza was illegal because it was just 2 km from Chengalpattu town, whereas it ought to have been located at least 5 to 10km away from the town as per rules. While the Model Code of Conduct was in force, the NHAI authorities also hiked the toll rates without obtaining necessary orders from the election commission, it was contended.
While admitting the matter on May 8, a vacation bench of Justice R Sudhakar and Justice K K Sasidharan restrained the authorities and the contractor from collecting toll.

On Wednesday, the present bench allowed the 'vacate stay' petition of the authorities and said: "The vacate stay petitioners will have to direct the person concerned to keep a record of the registration number of the vehicle and the phone number of the person who paid the amount. This is required since in the event of the writ petition being allowed, the amount collected may be returned to the person concerned.