Madras HC grants time to TN govt to file counter affidavit in application by Madras Race Course

Chennai, Sep 19 (IANS) Madras High Court granted time till Monday to the Tamil Nadu government to file a counter-affidavit to an application preferred by the Madras Race Club (MRC) on the state revenue department sealing the club.

The MRC had sought exemption from serving a two-month-long pre-suit notice on the government before filing a civil suit against the premature termination of a 99-year lease granted to it in 1946 with respect to 160.86 acres of land in Chennai.

Justice R.M.T. Teeka Raman of the Madras High Court granted the time after senior counsel P. Wilson and Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran, prayed that the government must be allowed to file its counter affidavit to the application.

The counsels claimed that the government had already taken possession of the land, and only the buildings remained to be handed over.

Senior counsel, P.H. Arvindh Pandian, representing the MRC, strongly opposed the claim of the government having taken possession of the land and stated that the property continued to be in possession of the club.

Arvindh Pandian said that a horse race was held even as latest as Saturday at the club property and added that it was wrong on the part of the government to claim that the property had been taken possession of.

The senior counsel representing the MRC had chosen to file the application since 80(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) requires every civil suit against the Centre or the State government to be filed only after the expiration of two months since the serving of a written pre-suit notice.

Arvindh Pandian said it was only after the court allows the application and the suit gets numbered that the question of hearing the government would arise.

He said that in this case a Government Order (G.O.) was issued on September 6, 2024, for the premature termination of the lease. The G.O. also instructed the Chennai Collector to take possession of the lands forthwith.

Advocate Arvind Pandian said that the revenue officials reached with a huge police team and sealed the club premises on September 9.

Thereafter, Revenue Secretary P. Amudha wrote to the club on September 9, stating that the government had decided to terminate the March 8, 1946, lease agreement executed in favour of the MRC and that the lease stands terminated with effect from September 6, 2024.

Arvindh Pandian said that the Chennai Collector also wrote a separate letter on the same day (September 9) calling upon the MRC to surrender possession of the buildings within 15 days.

The Collector permitted the club to use even the paddock area, for training the horses, only for a period of 15 days.

The counsel for MRC said that as the club had received the Collector’s letter only on September 10 and the 15-day breathing period would come to an end on September 24, there was a dire urgency to file the civil suit without serving a two-month-long pre-suit notice on the government.

Following this, Justice of the Madras High Court R.M.T. Teeka Raman directed the Tamil Nadu government to file its counter affidavit by the coming Monday, September 23.

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