CHENNAI: Holding that a land earmarked as playground cannot be allowed to be de-reserved, the Madras High Court has refused to order the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) to sell the playground area to a trust running a school at Tiruvanmiyur in Chennai.
“The land, having been reserved as a playground, cannot possibly be sold to the petitioner. Playground is a separate and distinct use category, and cannot be put to interchangeable use wholly or partly. The land reserved as an open space for playground can never be allowed to be de-reserved,” Justice J Nisha Banu said in a recent order.
The judge noted that the most common reason for shrinking of playgrounds is expansion of school blocks.
The observations were made while disposing of a petition filed by the Hindu Seva Samajam which runs a school in Tiruvanmiyur. The TNHB allotted 50% of a 1,889.34 sq.m land for construction of a school at a cost of Rs 22.33 lakh in 1989 at half the price, and allotted the remaining land to be used purely as a playground.
The trust approached TNHB for purchasing the playground portion and paid Rs 32.72 lakh, but the board later revised the amount after finding it was being used for other purposes. It withheld the sale deed for the school area. Seeking orders for releasing the sale deed and selling the playground area, the Samajam approached the court.
The judge ordered TNHB to execute sale deed for the school area, and also ruled that the board cannot allot the land marked for playground. It was told to return the amount paid for buying the playground area with 6% interest per annum.