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A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi identified the construction of illegal “dhabas” on both sides of national highways and expressways as a possible cause of road accidents and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing in the case for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), to submit statutory rules and regulations to initiate action against these eateries.
The court also wanted to know about the action taken so far, which authority is responsible for initiating it and which bodies are not implementing the provisions.
“After discussion between the amicus and the Solicitor General, the issues resolved by them, which may be helpful in issuing guidelines, will also be presented. In the meantime, the parties are free to exchange Google Images, which may be helpful in resolving the genuine problem,” the court ordered.
“We have the power to remove illegal dhabas and eateries, but a general delegation has gone to the local district magistrate. The local police and other authorities are under his command and control, which the NHAI does not have. So we have to find a solution,” Mehta said.
Describing the issue as non-confrontational, he said that generally, every expressway and national highway has a service road after a few kilometers, where vehicles breaking down are parked.
Justice Bishnoi acknowledged that there are service roads, but pointed out that this is not the case for every expressway and national highway, and illegal dhabas and small eateries come in between, where most of the accidents occur.
The bench said the NHAI report attempted to blame local contractors or the administration for encroachment on the highways, but the court wanted to know which authority under the law is required to monitor that these eateries do not come up.
Justice Maheshwari said the court wanted to frame guidelines to fill the existing lacunae in the provisions and ensure their implementation to prevent recurrence of accidents like Phalodi.
Appearing in the court on behalf of one of the intervenors, lawyer Pranab Sachdeva said the apex court has already dealt with these issues and given some directions which have not been implemented.
He said that there are highways in Goa that pass through medical colleges or villages, which leads to road accidents.
“I have invoked the recent Supreme Court judgment directing the NHAI to develop a SOP (standard operating procedure) to remove encroachments,” Sachdeva said.
Justice Maheshwari said that the issue is not of one state alone but of the entire country and the court is considering the broader picture in formulating the guidelines.
Senior lawyer ANS Nadkarni, who has been appointed amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the case, said he has filed Google images to show widespread encroachment on the highways.
On November 10, the court had sought response from NHAI and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in the suo motu case regarding the Phalodi accident.
It had also asked NHAI and the ministry to conduct a survey of the area and file a report on the number of dhabas on the highway passing through Phalodi.
It had also sought a specific report on the condition of the highway and the norms adopted by the contractor for road maintenance.
The top court took suo motu cognizance of the November 2 incident in Phalodi, in which 10 women and four children were among the 15 people killed when a tempo traveler collided with a stationary trailer truck.
The accident occurred near Matoda village on Bharat Mala Highway when the tempo traveler was going from Kolayat Temple in Bikaner towards Jodhpur.