An ongoing tussle between the landlord and the school management led to the premises of the Ashram Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Guindy being sealed on Wednesday. The students were shifted to the school’s second campus in Velachery.
C.H. Prabhakar, one of the joint owners of the building where the school has been functioning since 2001, alleged that the school had accumulated around ₹2 crore as rent arrears.
Mr. Prabhakar said that while their intention was not to harass the owners or disrupt the education of the children, they had decided to lock the premises on Wednesday morning. He said the owners will send a letter to the excise department stating that the institution was not functioning any more so that they did not have to pay service tax.
In a release, the school claimed that the management had already discussed about vacating the premises with the landlords, and added: “We will be filing a defamation case against the landlord for making false statements to the press.”