The court held that toll adjustments based on vehicle classification mismatches are lawful under existing statutory and contractual frameworks, necessitating re-examination of vehicle definitions in the Motor Vehicles Act.

ORDER :

M. NAGAPRASANNA, J.

The 1^st petitioner/Karavali Bus Owners Association (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Association’ for short) and other bus operators of Mangalore and Udupi Districts are at the doors of this Court calling in question an order dated 01-02-2025, by which the representation of the Association comes to be rejected, confirming debit adjustment charges made towards movement of buses of the Association in the toll plazas. A consequential prohibition is sought against the 3^rd respondent not to deduct any additional toll charges from FASTag wallet account of the petitioners.

2. Sans details, facts in brief, are as follows:-

The petitioners claim to be existing stage carriage permit holders operating in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Districts. The grievance of the petitioners is that, the stage carriages operated by them move through Hejamadi and Sastana toll plazas among others. It is their allegation that, the fare that will be charged on every trip of each vehicle should be taken into consideration on the laden weight of the vehicles, which is between 7,500 and 12,000 Kgs. insofar as mini vehicles are concerned. The further allegation is that the aforesaid two toll plazas deduct from the FASTag wallet of the petitioners on the vehicles passing through FASTag ID which is linked to the FASTag account, when it is scanned at the toll plazas. However, notwithstanding the said fee paid to enter the toll plaza, the 3^rd respondent – Udupi Sasthana Tollway Private Limited without notice to the petitioners has been deducting additional toll charges from the FASTag wallet account of all the stage carriage permit holders of the Association. The petitioners come to know of the fact of 3^rd respondent withdrawing additional toll charges in the form of “charge back process” from FASTag wallet account as and when it wishes to do so.

3. The Association then submits a representation on 21-07-2024 about its grievance to the 4^th respondent – Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate, Udupi District, alleging that there is an illegal activity of collecting excessive toll charges from the account of the petitioners when scanning the FASTag ID and sought to stop the illegal deductions. In response, the representation comes to be rejected by the National Highways Authority of India (hereinafter referred to as ‘the NHAI’ for short) holding that in terms of the schedule appended to the concession agreement, the debit adjustment followed as there is a mismatch found. It is challenging the said communication along with the continued action of collection of toll fee allegedly twice, the petitioners are at the doors of this Court.

4. Heard Sri Puttige R.Ramesh, learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioners; Sri Aditya Singh, learned Central Government Counsel appearing for respondent No.1, Smt. Shilpa Shah, learned counsel appearing for respondent No.2, Sri C.K.Nanda Kumar, learned senior counsel appearing for respondent No.3 and Sri Shamanth Naik, learned High Court Government Pleader appearing for respondent No.4.

SUBMISSIONS: PETITIONERS:

5. The learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioners takes this Court through the MOTOR VEHICLES ACT , 1988 (‘the Act’ for short) and places reliance upon several definition clauses to contend that ‘bus’ no where in the Act is defined. Therefore, we have to fallback upon the definition of ‘vehicle’ in the Act. The transport authorities have classified vehicles on laden and unladen weight. Vehicles which are about 12000 Kgs. a