Withdrawal of toll exemption to Armymen stayed

CHANDIGARH: Granting interim relief to serving defence personnel, the Armed Forces Tribunal has stayed the operation of a letter issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MRTH) to withdraw the exemption provided to them from paying toll tax across the country.

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 23

Granting interim relief to serving defence personnel, the Armed Forces Tribunal has stayed the operation of a letter issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MRTH) to withdraw the exemption provided to them from paying toll tax across the country.

Taking up a petition filed by a serving army officer, Maj P Hota, averring that the letter was in contravention of legislative provisions and earlier letters issued by the MRTH and attempted to take away a statutory condition of service of serving military personnel, the Tribunal today ordered that the letter would be kept in abeyance till the matter was appropriately resolved.

Serving defence personnel had been up in arms against the letter issued by Director (Tolls) in the MRTH on June 17, 2014, in which it was stated that toll exemption was only available to defence personnel while travelling “on duty”. However, Section 3(a) of the Act does not contain any stipulation of being “on duty” for personnel of the regular Army and the provision of “duty” was applicable only to Territorial Army and NCC personnel under Sections 3(b) and 3(c).

The Services Headquarters had also recently pointed out to the MRTH that the letter, ostensibly issued under the garb of a clarification under the Right to Information Act, was against the Act and it was also in contravention of earlier letters and clarifications issued by MRTH after consulting the Law Ministry which stated that there was no requirement of being “on duty” for personnel of regular forces.

The MRTH had recently clarified that the impugned letter was being re-examined, for which comments of the MoD were being sought. The petitioner has also requested the Tribunal to direct the MRTH, MoD and the Army headquarters to coordinate and resolve the controversy in a time-bound manner.

The provisions of Section 3 of the Act were earlier challenged before the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2006, which upheld toll exemption to defence personnel. The orders were also later upheld by the Supreme Court.