NEW DELHI:
The Supreme Court Friday refused to entertain a plea challenging the Centre”s decision to make FASTag mandatory for all the vehicles.
The government has made FASTag mandatory from February 15 midnight and any vehicle not fitted with it will be charged double the toll at electronic toll plazas across the country, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has said.
A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justice Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanian asked the petitioner to approach the Delhi High Court and granted the petitioner liberty to withdraw the plea.
“Counsel appearing for the petitioner prays for withdrawal of this petition with liberty to approach the High Court of Delhi. Prayer is allowed. Accordingly, the writ petition is dismissed as withdrawn with the liberty aforesaid,” the bench said.
The bench did not accept the contention of the petitioner”s advocate Dhruv Tamta that it”s a pan India matter and asked him to approach Delhi High Court.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by Rajesh Kumar seeking quashing of notifications issued by the Central government mandating FAStags as a condition for renewal of fitness certificate of vehicle and for getting third party insurance.
The petitioner also challenged the decision to impose fines for not fitting FASTags even when vehicles are not driven on highways.
“Making fastags mandatory for such vehicles being driven within state is unreasonable, arbitrary and violates Article 19 of the Constitution,” the plea said.
