The Times of India      21.01.2011

CHENNAI: The Madras high court
has upheld the Chennai corporation’s move to retrieve a prime property
leased to a trust running two schools at Shenoy Nagar, and has asked the
corporation to run the schools by itself or through any worthy educational trust.

A division bench comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice KK Sasidharan,
making it clear that the new trust or organisation should have enough
experience and be able to run the institutions without any commercial
motive, said the welfare of students and teaching and non-teaching staff
members should be kept in mind.

The bench passed the order
while dismissing a writ petition of Thiru Vi Ka Dr Mu Va Educational
Trust, which runs a higher secondary school and a matriculation school,
challenging the order of the corporation to recover its lands leased out
to the trust.

Originally, the corporation leased out lands in A
and B blocks from the year 1955 and C and D blocks from 1962 to the
trust. As per the terms of the lease, B and C blocks were to be utilized
as playgrounds. Subsequently, the corporation took possession of the
land in B block for developing it as a playground. Thereafter in 2002,
it also sought to recover the lands in C block for establishing
corporation playground, which was challenged by the trust. The
corporation also claimed that the total lease arrears amount was Rs
35.61 crore for the lands in A, C and D blocks.