Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 13: The High Court has recorded that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is under obligation to develop the wayside amenities including petrol pumps and minor repair shops on National Highway for public convenience and dismissed the plea seeking prohibiting the establishing of petrol pump on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
The petitioner-Rajinder Singh through the medium of a writ petition, had sought a direction upon NHAI, prohibiting it from executing Lease Deed in respect of land in favour of a private person for establishment of a petrol pump.
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Justice Sanjay Dhar dismissed the petition with the observation that there is no merit in it and also recorded that the NHAI is obliged to develop, manage and maintain National Highways vested in it and to construct wayside amenities near the National Highways vested in it.
“…The Authority has to develop the facilities on National Highways, parking lots, snack bar/restaurant, toilets, rest rooms for short stay, first Aid, telephone booths, petrol pumps & minor repair shops and Kiosks for sales of medicines/sanitary items for the public purposes.
The court said that the NHAI, in whom the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway has been vested, is duty bound to provide wayside amenities of all these types. “…any land acquired by the National Highways Authority for discharging its functions under the Act is deemed to be land needed for a public purpose, therefore, utilization of the land by NHAI for creating such amenities in the face of deeming provision of the Act becomes a public purpose”, read the judgment.
The court has clarified since the other authorities have decided to utilize the land in question, which has remained unused after the widening of the National Highway for the purpose of establishment of petrol pump or for the purpose of creating any other wayside amenities, the same can, by no stretch of reasoning, be termed as a purpose other than public purpose.
The court has further added that it is not a case where NHAI has transferred the land to a private person for a purpose entirely alien to the development of National Highway but it is a case where NHAI has leased out the land to the person for the purpose of developing a wayside amenity, viz; establishment of a petrol pump, which is included in the development of national highway.
The court has held the contention of the counsel for the petitioner as without substance that his client has a right of pre-emption over the land in question because the Jammu and Kashmir Right of Prior Purchase Act stands already repealed and as such, the petitioner cannot claim any right on this basis, that too, by invoking writ jurisdiction of this Court.
The court has also turned down the arguments of petitioner-counsel that the land in question could have been leased out to him if a petrol pump was to be established on spot. “It is to be noted that the land has been leased out to a private respondent on the basis that he emerged as the highest bidder after participating in the tender process. The petitioner, without participating in the said process, cannot claim any right of allotment of the land in question”, the court replied.
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