The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Chennai Corporation to seal all the 729 shops in the Koyambedu Wholesale Market that have not paid property tax till date.
Justice N.Kirubakaran who passed the interim order on a writ petition filed by Kulasekaran and R. Padmanabhan, two shop owners at Koyembedu Market, also directed the Commissioner of Police to provide adequate police protection at the time of sealing the shops.
The petitioners had challenged the property tax demand raised by the civic body for the period 1996 to 2015.
The Madras High Court had earlier directed the petitioners to deposit the demanded amount of ₹25,883 with the Corporation of Chennai. When the case came up for hearing on November 23, 2016, it was brought to the notice of the Madras High Court that the last revision of the property tax in Chennai was made during 1998-1999 and that till date no revision had been made.
When Mr. Justice Kirubakaran raised a question as to why the Corporation Council had not passed any resolution revising the property tax every five years, it was stated that though the officials had submitted a proposal for revision, they did not get a response.
On November 20, 2016, when the matter came up again, the judge, in his order observed, “the interim order passed by this court made the defaulters to make the payment to the tune of ₹2,19,37,048 from November 17, 2016 to November 29, 2016 within 12 days.”
When the matter came up on Tuesday, it was reported that out of 2,325 shops, 1,566 shop owners had paid a total of ₹2,95,39,481 before April 27 this year, and after that, 30 shop owners had paid ₹13,33,866 as tax before June 29; only the remaining 729 shop owners have to pay the property tax amounting to ₹ 2,48,23,891.
The judge then posted the matter for compliance to Thursday.
