Madras HC raps top government officials for not paying rent

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has rapped top government officials for making an aged woman run from pillar to post to get the rent due for her land on which the Madhavaram taluk office has been functioning since 2009. The court said that until the lease amount is revised and the arrears of rent are settled, the Secretary to Government, Revenue Department, Collector of Tiruvallur and Tahsildar of Madhavaram taluk would not be permitted to draw any salary and neither would the government disburse the salary to them.

“The petitioner being an old Muslim lady, aged about 67, driving her from pillar to post is not justified,” said Justice S Vaidyanathan. “And the action of the respondents on the issue is perfunctory. Hence, this court finds there is prima-facie substance in the contentions of the petitioner and the writ petition is allowed.”

The petitioner, Farida Shaukath owns the premises out of which the Madhavaram Taluk office operates. The court said a lease agreement would have to be entered into between the petitioner and respondents within 30 days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and the arrears of rent from May 2016 till the date of entering into the agreement, would have to be paid and the monthly rent would have to be paid on or before 5th of every subsequent month.

“The arrears of rent will have to be paid within 30 days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order,” said Justice Vaidyanathan. “Till such time the lease agreement containing the periodical revision of the lease amount, if agreed upon by the petitioner, is entered into and the arrears of rent as on date is cleared, all the three respondents shall not draw any salary and the government shall not disburse their salary to them.”

Shaukath said that in Dec 2009, she was approached by revenue officials seeking lease of the land for establishing the taluk office. She said that after her initial hesitation to give out the land to the government, Rs 1.2 lakh was set as the rent. However, she said she was assured by revenue officials that the approval has already been obtained from the government for establishing the Taluk Office in Madhavaram and the lease agreement would be entered into.

However, things got murky when on December 22, 2009, the Tahsildar named Pugalendhi, said the taluk office had to be established at the earliest. Despite her protests, he said the lease agreement would be entered in due course.

She got the officials to sign a letter issued by her as an acknowledgement for taking on lease of the premises. The Revenue Inspector also issued a letter confirming the functioning of the Taluk Office in the premises with effect from Dec 23, 2009. In the order passed last week, Justice Vaidyanathan said the petitioner had to struggle to enter into a written agreement of lease of the premises for rent and that the Tahsildar had said the rent was fixed by PWD at `98,925 per month.