A plea has been filed with the Madras High Court by the erstwhile Union minister M K Alagiri and several others that challenges a recent decision of the Madurai city corporation to revise the rent of the shops taken on lease by them at the city’s main bus stand.
During a hearing of the petition this week Justice V Bharathidasan issued a notice to the corporation and has asked it to file a response by February 21.
Hike Illegal Without Assessment
Alagiri has claimed that the corporation’s move to increase the rent was “illegal” as no assessment had been carried out by the Public Works Department. Citing this as a reason, he has sought for the court to quash the corporation’s order.
Alagiri is one of the sons of DMK president M Karunanidhi, and is based out of Madurai.
In his petition, Alagiri said that he had leased out three shop premises and was paying a monthly rent of Rs 9,969 each for two of the shops. For the third shop he was paying Rs 10,565 as rent. Now the rent has been increased to Rs 13,358 for each of the shops.
According to the counsel representing other petitioners, the corporation should have consulted with the shopkeepers before hiking the rent.
The city corporation has stated that the rent had been increased as per the latest assessment of the property.
