Chennai: The Madras high court has dismissed a petition filed by Latha Rajinikanth, wife of superstar Rajinikanth, which challenged an order of the Chennai corporation enhancing the rent for her shop in Alwarpet from
Rs 3,702 to Rs 21,160.
Justice S.Vaidyanathan dismissed the petition filed by Latha Rajinikanth represented by her authorised signatory Mohan Menon, which sought to quash an order of the Chennai corporation dated June 23, 2017.
In his petition, Mohan Menon submitted that he was carrying on the business known as M/s Travel Exchange India Pvt Ltd as it Managing Director in shop no.8 at C.P.Ramasamy Road, Alwarpet, Chennai-18. He had been running the business for over 25 years. The said building was owned by the corporation of Chennai. Even though the land may be valuable, the building has depreciated greatly in value. In fact, the corporation was not even maintaining the building and its occupants like himself were spending huge amount to maintain the building, he added.
He said his business has also suffered from the recent demonitisation, GST and general down trend in the business. Further, on line businesses have also increased the competition and he was somehow running this small business on meagre margins. He has been paying the rent promptly to the corporation up to date. He was paying a monthly rent of Rs 3,702. All of a sudden, the corporation passed an order demanding a monthly rent of Rs 21,160. No method of calculation has been given as to how the corporation arrived at such an exorbitant figure. No yardstick has been followed. No Expert Committee was appointed or consulted by the corporation. Not even an inspection was conducted by the corporation.
Even the basic principle to fix a fair rent has not been followed as per the provisions of the Rent Control Act, he added.
Standing counsel for Chennai corporation T.C.Gopalakrishnan submitted that as per a government order, once in 9 years, the corporation has to re-fix the rent. Challenging this GO, petitions were filed in the Supreme Court, which dismissed them. Therefore, the Chennai corporation was justified in re-fixing the rent, he added. Following this, the judge dismissed the petition.
