Delhi High Court Stays NHAI Termination Notice, Protecting Roadway Solutions' ₹104 Cr Bonds In Delhi-Mumbai Expressway Dispute

The Vacation Bench of the Delhi High Court presided over by Justice Madhu Jain restrained the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) from acting on its Notice of Intention to Terminate (NITT) against Roadway Solutions India Infra Limited (RSIL) until the next hearing. The Court also protected the RSIL's insurance surety bonds of approx. Rs. 104 Crores from invocation.

The petition was filed under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, seeking interim protection against NHAI's Notice of Intent to Terminate and invocation of the insurance surety bonds.

Background of the Dispute

In January 2024, the parties entered into an agreement pertaining to the development of a specific package on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. As per the agreement, the NHAI was obligated to hand over 90% of the Right of Way (RoW) in a contiguous stretch of at least 5 km.

Due to repeated failure of the parties to fulfill their obligations, three settlement agreements were signed one by one between the parties. As per the third settlement, the NHAI was obligated to provide clearance of the hindered land, and RSIL was obligated to achieve 10% of “Expenditure/progress” by 25.11.2025 with a grace period of 30 days.

Arguments and Ruling

Counsel for petitioner, Senior Advocate Gopal Jain, submitted that it was the first time that NHAI admitted the availability of the land at 82.4% instead of earlier claims of 94.85%. It further submitted that the parties also did a fresh joint verification of the available land on 8th-9th December, 2025, which showed a further hindered length of 425 meters, thus reducing the land availability to 81.2%.

The petitioner highlighted that it achieved the milestone as required under the settlement and wrote a letter to the respondent that it had successfully achieved the expenditure/progress of 19.34%.

Further, the petitioner submitted that due to the non-availability of the contiguous length, the petitioner was constrained to issue a Notice of Intent to Terminate dated 18.12.2025, and in counterblast to the same, the respondent issued another Notice of Intent to Terminate dated 23.12.2025.

Furthermore, the petitioner submitted that the respondent will unlawfully encash the insurance surety bonds of the petitioner and terminate the agreement to hide its own defaults.

Per contra, the counsel for NHAI submitted that the dispute concerns a project of public utility service and, therefore, this court ought to exercise restraint and refrain from granting any interim relief.

Considering the submission of the petitioners that encashment of the insurance surety bonds, aggregating to approximately Rs. 100 crores, before final adjudication would result in grave and irreversible loss and injury to the petitioner, the Court ordered the respondent restrained from acting upon the Notice of Intent to Terminate till the next date of hearing.

Case Name: Roadway Solutions India Infra Limited v National Highway Authority of India

Case No.: O.M.P. (I) (COMM.)-1/2026

Coram: Hon'ble Ms. Justice Madhu Jain

For Petitioner: Mr. Gopal Jain, Sr. Adv. With Mr. Samir Malik, Mr. Varun Kalra, Mr. Pranav Khanna and Mr. Krishan Kumar, Advs

For Respondent: Mr. Abhay Gupta and Ms. Simran Goel, Advs.

Order Date: January 02, 2026

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