MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday allowed the appeals filed by the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) challenging an order passed by a single judge preventing the eviction of SRM Hotels Private Limited from a 4.3 acre land belonging to TTDC in Kottapattu village in Tiruchy.
A bench of justices AD Jagadish Chandira and R Poornima further upheld TTDC's rejection of SRM Hotels' plea to extend the lease period for another 20 years.
As per the case records, TTDC had granted lease of land, along with a superstructure, to SRM Hotels in 1994 for a period of 30 years to set up a star and budget accommodation to house delegates who attended the 8th World Tamil Conference at Thanjavur in 1995.
It was agreed that the annual lease amount would be revised every three years at 7% of the market value and should be paid in advance 10 days prior to the commencement of each year, adding that default of payment for two consecutive years would result in termination of the lease.
However, expressing grievances with regard to the lease period and lack of profit, SRM Hotels made several requests seeking extension of lease period. But TTDC rejected the requests and issued a letter to SRM Hotels in June 2024, demanding to settle the outstanding lease amount of Rs 38.85 crore from 2003 to 2024 and also to handover the property citing expiry of the lease period. Challenging this, SRM Hotels had moved the high court, which were allowed by the single judge.
On Wednesday, the division bench observed that as per the contract, renewal is at the government's discretion. Though TTDC's rejection order was delayed due to administrative reasons, it cannot be treated as implied consent. SRM Hotels is bound to pay the enhanced lease amount but instead of doing it, has attempted to protract the issue and squat on the property by filing litigations both before the civil court and the high court, the judges criticised and set aside the orders passed by the single judge.