No legal provision to exempt individual users from toll fee payment: Court

The petitioner had sought a service road parallel to the NH, alleging that the service road abruptly stops before the toll plaza forcing motorists to use the NH and pay toll fee.

Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court

CHENNAI: Holding that there is no legal provision to grant toll fee exemption to individual users, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently dismissed a petition filed by a flour mill owner seeking exemption at Kappalur toll plaza in Madurai for transporting goods to his warehouse which is situated nearby.

Justice R Vijayakumar pointed out that the only provision available for granting the exemption is Rule 3 of National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008.

"As per the rule, the power to grant exemption lies only with the Union government and the court does not have any jurisdiction to entertain such a request from the petitioner," he observed.

That apart, the Union government is empowered to exempt only a section of the National Highway (NH) and it is not empowered to grant exemption to individual users, except vehicles belonging to dignitaries mentioned in Rule 11, the judge added. He also rejected the petitioner's contentions relating to the location of the Kappalur toll plaza by pointing out that the Supreme Court has already decided the issue.

The petitioner had sought a service road parallel to the NH, alleging that the service road abruptly stops before the toll plaza forcing motorists to use the NH and pay a toll fee. Regarding this, the judge observed service roads can never be treated as an alternative roads running parallel to the NH.

"Only where there are interjections or city or town limits get connected, the authorities are creating service roads for smooth and free flow of traffic to avoid accidents," he added.