The Supreme Court Friday asked the central government to explain the reason for its failure to set up highway tribunals to deal with encroachment on highways in the country.

The ministry of surface transport and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) have been given notice in this regard and four weeks time to reply.

Treating a letter received from one Ajay Goel of Dehradun as a public interest petition, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti and judges G.P. Mathur and P.K. Balasubramanyan issued notice to the respondents.

In his letter, Goel pointed out that parliament had enacted the Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Bill, 2002 that provided for constitution of highway tribunals to adjudicate disputes pertaining to orders passed by highway administration to be set up in every state by the NHAI.

The letter regretted that despite President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's assent to the Bill in January 2003, no action had been initiated to implement the law.

It said that the act, enacted as the National Highways Act, 1956 and the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988 did not give power to the central government to prevent or remove encroachments on land under the national highways, to restrict access to them from adjacent land or to regulate traffic movement or ani