ACB starts discrete inquiry in e-way toll agreement
The court has asked the MSRDC to file a reply within four weeks.
Mumbai: The state anti-corruption bureau on Thursday infor-med the HC that it had initiated a discrete inquiry as to whether a concession agreement had been signed between MSRDC and the contractor to collect toll on the Mumbai-Pune expressway since 2004 and whether the same had been registered. The ACB informed the court after the petitioner alleged that as the concession agreement had not been registered, toll collected by the contractor since 2004 was unauthorised, causing losses to the state.
A division bench of chief justice Dr Manjula Chellur and Justice R.M. Jamdar was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by activist Pravin Wategaonkar praying that as the contract for collecting toll on the Mumbai-Pune e-way and national highway 4 was for 15 years and the contractor had already collected an assured sum of Rs 4,330 by December 31, 2016, he should not be allowed to pocket the amount collected thereafter. Appearing in person, the petitioner pointed out that the concession agreement which allowed the contractor to collect toll for 15 years had not been signed and if at all, not been registered under the Registration Act, 1908.
“If an agreement is registered, the party has to pay stamp duty however it has not been done as a result of which, the state has suffered losses,” Wategaonkar claimed. He said that in such a scenario, the agreement had no value and hence, toll collection by the contractor for the past 13 years was unauthorised.
Senior counsel for the contractor however objected to the petitioner’s complaint and said that an amount of Rs 13 crore i.e. half the stamp duty owed, had been deposited with the MSRDC as per a previous court order. The state ACB, through counsel A. Vagyani informed the court that it had started a discrete inquiry into the petitioner’s allegations.
The court has asked the MSRDC to file a reply within four weeks. It also said it would like to go through previous PILs concerning the e-way to ascertain whether the current PIL was valid.