Retrieve land from club in Coonoor, Madras HC tells govt

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to immediately resume the land leased out to a private club in Coonoor as it violated the lease conditions.

The petitioner, Mount Pleasant Social Club, Coonoor, represented by its president moved the Madras High Court (MHC) seeking to quash the order issued by the revenue department to resume back the lease of land.

The case was listed before Justice S M Subramaniam.

According to the petitioner, the social club has started promoting sports like Tennis and Badminton for the benefit of the middle-class people living in and around Coonoor.

In 1937, the then Collector of Nilgiris gave 1.50 acres of government land in favour of the club, said the petitioner.

In 2003, the Nilgiris Collector passed an order to cancel the lease agreement given in favour of the social club, which was also accepted by the Special Commissioner and Commissioner of Land Administration, Chepauk.

Challenging this, the social club moved the court challenging this order.

In 2010, the court passed final orders directing the authorities to consider the social club's representation challenging the cancellation of the lease.

The counsel for the petitioner club contended that the reasons stated in the resumption of land order are untenable and passed without application of mind.

The Additional Advocate General (AAG) R Ramanlal for the State contended that the club has not been utilized for the purpose for which it was originally assigned.

The petitioner-Club had not remitted the annual fee of Rs 10 in time, and the fee was not paid for several decades. The petitioner-Club has collected a sum of Rs 1,06,825 from 1972 to 1999 from a private school by letting out a portion of the land on a rental basis, the club has violated conditions 1 and 2 of the original grant, said the AAG.

After the submission, the judge observed that the club is now enjoying the valuable property in Coonoor and the market value of the said property is very high,and such lands are to be utilised by the government for the benefit of common men.

"Even if the sports activities are to be continued in the said land belonging to the government, the government can do so for the benefit of the common man" observed the judge.

"Based on the documents and evidence, found that the petitioner-club had violated more than one condition stipulated in the original grant," observed the judge, and dismissed the petition.