The Madras High Court, on March 6, directed the Centre and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to respond to a January circular that gave discounts on return journeys only to FASTag-equipped vehicles. On January 15, 2020, NHAI had issued a policy circular restricting discounts on return journeys (made within 24 hours) only to vehicles having FASTags. The local area exemption was also only made available to such vehicles. The court's direction came after a petitioner challenged the notification claiming that it was discriminatory and had no statutory backing. This was first reported by Live Law. The January 2020 circular had come four years after the the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways first came out with the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008, which allowed for discounts on multiple journeys, irrespective of the payment mode. Subsequently, the 2008 Rules were amended in 2016 to include an “exclusive lane” for the movement of vehicles equipped with FASTags. The petitioner argued that the government can not amend the 2016 rules by means of a notification, and it has to be “necessarily backed by a legislation”. The petition had also said that the January 2020 circular was discriminating between the vehicles that don’t have a FASTag and the ones that do. Also, the mode of payment (cash vs FASTag) can not be a basis for availing discounts, the petitioner argued. A division bench of Chief Justice AP Shah and Justice Subramonium Prasad agreed with the petitioner, stating that…
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