LAHORE, July 14: A senior civil judge on Monday suspended operation of the City District Government’s notification regarding levy of road-user charge on 32 roads in the provincial metropolis.

While taking up an application moved by a local lawyer, the court issued notice to the local government secretary and the Lahore DCO for July 21 after it suspended the operation of the notification till the next date of hearing.

The plaintiff, Advocate Arif Bhindhar, had alleged in his suit that the CDG was not authorized to impose the charge under Section 116 of the Local Government Ordinance, as the whole exercise could not be initiated without the consent of the federal government.

He also contended that under the prevalent law, the CDG was bound to publish the proposal about the imposition of the charge in the form of a draft to be presented to the general public for inviting its objections.

Mr Bhindhar claimed that the public was not informed of the levy of charge, and the respondent imposed it in a concealed manner. He demanded the court that it should abolish the charge, which was illegally imposed.

CDG counsel Khadim Husain Bhatti informed the court that his client had published the proposal for levying the road-user tax on 32 roads of the city in the form a draft, which he submitted to the court. He claimed that this draft was approved by the CDG members during their recent budget meeting after which the impugned notification was issued.

According to the counsel, the notification was issued in accordance with the draft earlier approved by the local government members, and there was nothing illegal about it.

However, the court observed that in the official notification it was not specially mentioned that it was issued in pursuance to any draft as claimed to have been published prior to the issuance of the impugned notification.

The court observed that it would like to be updated by both the Lahore DCO and local government secretary on the issue during hearing on the next date, while the operation of the notification would remain suspended.