CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday issued notices to the state government and the Tambaram police commissioner to file a reply to a petition seeking orders to vacate the office premises of the commissionerate located at Sholinganallur for violating lease agreement.
Justice Anita Sumanth directed the home secretary and the commissioner to file the reply by March 8 on a petition filed by the building owners DH Sarath Kumar, D Venkatesh, and DN Choudery.
They said the five-storey building was rented out to the commissionerate for a period of 11 months from January 2022 for a monthly rent of Rs 10.14 lakh. However, the commissionerate failed to pay the fixed rent till September and sent a communication stating that as per the PWD guidelines the rent is Rs 6.08 lakh per month.
The petitioners said they agreed for this upon coercion but later terminated the agreement. However, the tenant(s) did not heed to their request to vacate.
“State cannot resort to cheating its citizens and ironically the beneficiary here is the police commissionerate,” they said in the petition, adding that the reduced rental amount has incurred them a loss of `48 lakh per annum.