Justices M B Ghodeswar and A B Palkar, comprising the division bench which allowed the contractor to collect the toll and furnish accounts to the government at monthly intervals, posted the hearing before admission of the matter to February 17.

The ongoing court proceeding was set on course last year by Congress leaders Vinayak Bangde, former MLA Mahadevrao Tajne and two others through a writ petition against collection of toll by M/s Khare and Tarkunde which built the bridge between Nandori and Jam on the Nagpur-Chandrapur state highway.

Considering that at least 74 road and bridge projects are underway on BOT basis involving an outlay of nearly Rs 10,000 crore, the outcome of the proceeding is likely to have a wider effect on the privatisation of roads andbridges in Maharashtra - one of the most cherished plans of Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Nitin Gadkari.

The State Government along with Minister Gadkari, the PWD Secretary, the PWD Chief Engineer and the firm, Khare and Tarkunde, are the respondents.

On January 27, the then bench of Justices Ashok Desai and S P Kulkarni had issued a stay on toll collection pending submission of other information by the State.

When the matter came up for motion hearing today, PWD Under Secretary Sunil Wandekar, submitted that total cost of construction of the bridge, borne by Khare and Tarkunde, was Rs 6.10 crore and the firm would collect nearly Rs 9 crore over a period of five years.

Special Counsel for the State Jugalkishore Gilda argued the contractor was only getting reasonable profit on his investment and the petition was "sponsored" by Congress MP Pugalia to malign Gadkari and no public interest was involved.

However, counsel for petitioners Rajan Pillai maintained that the figures were wrong anddemanded that an expert committee be set up to examine the same. That, government receipts be given for the toll collected. One of the main contentions of the petitioners remains that the amount to be collected by toll should not exceed the invested cost.

Gilda pointed out the collection was computerised and there would be monthly checking of the accounts by the government. He said while the toll collected per truck was Rs 50, it was reduced to Rs 20 for passenger buses and hence the common man was not affected.

While posting the matter for next hearing on February 17, the bench allowed the firm to go ahead with toll collection till such extent where it does not exceed the actual cost of investment.

Earlier, the bench of Justices N P Chapalgaonkar and D D Sinha, before whom the case was first posted, had issued notices to three respondents, leaving out the Minister. At a subsequent hearing, the then bench of Justices N J Pandya and A B Palkar, had declined to issue a stay on the toll collection.

Thepetition alleged that the contract was "issued under the influence of Minister Nitin Gadkari" and that the contractor would "fleece the public" by collecting as much as Rs 50 crore though only Rs 2 crore was spent on it.

Later, when the case came up before the bench comprising Justice A A Desai and Justice S P Kulkarni, the petitioner submitted that the toll collection be stayed as the State had not given any figures of the amount spent on the construction, the modalities of toll collection and the money the contractor was expected to collect before transferring the bridge to the PWD.