The Kerala High Court on Monday dismissed a few writ petitions seeking a directive to the State government to introduce an alternative mode of reimbursement of the amount for the monthly toll passes for the residents living within 10-km radius of the Paliyekkara toll plaza in view of the implementation of Fastag.
The petition was filed by Joseph and other residents near the Paliyekkara toll plaza. According to them, the Government used to reimburse the amount for the monthly pass worth ₹150 taken by the residents to Guruvayur Infrastructure Ltd. that issued the passes. The petitioners said that in view of the introduction of the Fastag system of payment, they had approached the Government demanding that an alternative mode of toll payment be made.
43,000 passes
However, the Government rejected their demand and made it clear that the amount spent for the passes would later be directly reimbursed to them. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) submitted that around 43,000 passes had been issued to persons residing within 10-km radius of the toll plaza. In fact, the NHAI had no control over the back-end operations, including payment etc. It was for the Government to make alternative arrangement for payment for the passes given to the residents.
Justice P.B. Suresh Kumar said that what was extended to the residents was only a privilege and the Government could decide the modalities of extending the privilege. It was within the power of the Government to change the modalities of payments to the residents. Besides, the petitioners had financial capacity to pay a paltry sum of ₹150. The statement of the petitioners that they could not pay ₹150 a month for a nation-building process could not be appreciated.
The court also observed that the only change effected by the Government was that the residents had first to spend the amount for the passes and then get it reimbursed from the Government.
