The Madras High Court said on Monday (September 9, 2024) that on that same day, it will also address the petitions concerning the State of Tamil Nadu’s decision to cancel the 1945 lease agreement with the Madras Race Club (MRC) with regard to 160.86 acres of land in Guindy, Chennai, after the latter reported that some revenue officers had arrived with a heavily armed escort wanting to evict them from the site.
Before the second Division Bench of Justices S.S. Sundar and K. Rajasekar, advocate Vaibhav R. Venkatesh made Madras Race Club to which this property was given on 99 year lease since 1945, pointed out that the club could not be so deprived of the property in such so called undemocratic manner when there was a writ appeal concerning rental defaults lingering before the Bench who ordered the status quo to be maintained.
The attorney reasoned that the officials abused the interim court order specifically when the Division Bench passed on the 4th of September and made it clear that status que was only with respect to the rental overdue and the State government had a right to revoke the lease in as far as the law permitted it. He went on to say that this order has been misinterpreted in a way that there was eviction that led to possession of the property without any notice to the respondent.
The Bench has noted in its orders dated September 4, ‘this clarification need not be construed as an instruction. It is only this court which delineates the area of temporary order. This order shall not operate as a bar to the arguments or legal points that the appellant may canvass, in the event of termination of the lease. This court reiterates that this court has neither heard the parties nor expressed any opinion with regard to the respondents’ rights to terminate the lease in terms of the lease deed.’
However, as clarified in the court orders, the process of lease termination could not be done unilaterally even if the officials were much inclined to go for its termination, but , their counsel lamented, they did go ahead and passed a Government Order (G.O.) on 6 th September terminating the lease and directing the Collector, Chennai to take over the lands in question immediately.
Mr. Venkatesh narrated that the concerned officers could not just move in to take over the place which was home to a couple of horses requiring feeding on a regular basis. He made reference to Monday afternoon to say that Madras Race Club’s writ appeal need be heard as a matter of urgency. The bench presided by Justice Sundar admitted the appeal for hearing at 1:30 pm after pondered over the manner in which the lease agreement was repudiated and taking possession of the land by the other party occurred at the same time.
Separate Case
At the same time advocate Nithyaesh Natraj sought permission from justice R.M.T. Teekaa Raman to bring an urgent civil suit in the high court to overturn the decision of the lease termination. The judge granted him such permission and resolved to set the hearing for 3 p.m. on Monday.
