Complete Ashoka Buildcon debarment case within 2 weeks, HC tells NHAI
This story was originally published at 14:21 IST on 23 December 2025
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NEW DELHI – The division bench of the Delhi High Court Tuesday asked the National Highways Authority of India to complete in two weeks the debarment proceedings aganist Ashoka Buildcon Ltd. following the fatal accident on the Aroor-Thuravoor Thekku section of National Highway-66 in Kerala last month.
The case has its genesis from the National Highways Authority of India on Nov. 26 issuing a show cause notice for temporarily suspending Ashoka Buildcon from participating in ongoing and future bids of the highways authority for one month or completion of investigation by the expert committee, whichever was later. NHAI's action was in response to the incident when two precast girders fell, one of them on to a commercial vehicle causing the death of its driver, on Nov. 13. The expert committee was to conclude its probe within one month regarding debarment of Ashoka Buildcon.
Challenging its suspension, Ashoka Buildcon moved the single judge bench of Justice Sachin Datta. Ashoka Buildcon said the incident occurred due to failure of the hydraulic jack because of sudden and non-predictable circumstances. The company denied the allegations that public safety was endangered and said it was not given a hearing before the suspension order was passed against it.
On Dec. 8, Justice Datta said that the suspension action against Ashoka Buildcon was akin to debarment, having extreme consequences for the company and there was a need for compliance of principles of natural justice. Justice Datta asked Ashoka Buildcon to file a reply within three days to the show cause notice issued by the highways authority. He asked the highways authority to keep a hearing to consider whether suspension was warranted against Ashoka Buildcon and a reasoned order shall be passed. Till the conclusion of this, the suspension order against Ashoka Buildcon shall be kept in abeyance. Challenging this order, the highways authority moved the division bench.
The bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Tushar Rao Gedela said that the suspension order by the highways authority was passed on Nov. 26 and on Tuesday almost one month had lapsed. By Dec. 26, the highways authority was mandated to take a final decision on debarment of Ashoka Buildcon, said the division bench. However, instead of proceeding to take a final decision, an appeal has been filed by the highways authority to challenge the single judge's order, said the bench.
The highways authority said that it was more concerned on the single judge's order that held against the power of the petitioner on suspension of a company and passing a reasoned order for the same. The division bench said that the highways authority, according to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the petitioner's circular, has the power to temporarily suspend a company for a month pending an enquiry without issuance of a show cause notice and reasoned order. That suspension should be taken against the company in case its conduct caused any danger to public safety, said the division bench. However, Justice Datta's suspension order was given in the facts and circumstances of the case and in appropriate cases suspension can be resorted to without show cause notice, the bench added.
At 1336 IST, the shares of Ashoka Buildcon Ltd. were down 0.4% at INR 174.50 on the National Stock Exchange. End
IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury
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