Indian Express: Chandigarh: Tuesday,
September 13, 2016.
A letter
issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has resulted in
toll operators in several parts of the country insisting that only those
defence personnel who are travelling ‘on duty’ are entitled to toll tax
exemption.
There is
disquiet amongst serving defence personnel over the issuance of a letter by the
MoRTH that is in contravention of the Indian Tolls (Army & Air Force) Act,
1901. The letter has been released in the form of an RTI reply stating that
defence personnel who are not ‘on duty’ are not entitled to toll tax exemption.
The RTI reply was issued based on notings by a law officer of the Law Ministry
stating that Section 3(b) of the Act only permits toll exemption to defence
personnel who are “on duty”. The letter is now being cited by toll operators to
refuse toll exemption to defence personnel.
An advocate
dealing with the case said Section 3(b) of the act only deals with Territorial
Army (TA) and National Cadet Corps (NCC) personnel for whom the condition of
‘duty’ is imposed while the said requirement of being ‘on duty’ is not
applicable to personnel of the regular forces to whom Section 3 (a) applies.
The advocate said the controversy is needless as it was earlier settled in 2003
by the same ministry, in consultation with the law ministry, that there was no
requirement of ‘duty’ under the 1901 Act for regular forces. The grant of toll
exemption to defence personnel had earlier in 2006 been challenged till the
Supreme Court but the apex court had upheld the exemption.
Another
curious aspect that has come to light is that when a petition was filed before
the Armed Forces Tribunal on the subject, the MoRTH had sought the opinion of
the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on the subject. A closer look, however, revealed
that the opinion had been tendered by ‘Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare’
(DESW) against the issue saying that the matter concerned a ‘welfare measure’
of ‘ex-servicemen’ while in reality the matter related to a statutory privilege
of serving personnel of the regular forces and the DESW had no jurisdiction on
the issue.The Chandimandir-based Western Command of the Army immediately raised
a red flag on the DESW interfering in the matter pointing out the gravity and
inappropriateness and also stating that the matter was under the jurisdiction
of ‘Department of Defence’ (DoD). The AFT also later disposed the petition
stating that it did not have jurisdiction over the matter.
Lt Col S S
Sohi (retd), chairman of Ex-servicemen Grievances Cell, said, “This is
blatantly illegal harassment of serving personnel on toll plazas all over the
country… It is now reaching alarming proportions, the authorities in Delhi
should finally wake up from their slumber. This is an anti-soldier move and
should be immediately corrected.”
Experts say
the entire issue is shrouded in a cloud – the issuance of a letter under the
garb of RTI being issued by the MoRTH thereby contravening a legislative Act
and its own notifications and secondly, the DESW which is concerned with
pensions and resettlement of ex-servicemen commenting on an issue of serving
soldiers.
.JPG)
.JPG)
