Latha Rajinikanth, wife of actor Rajinikanth, has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court challenging the decision of the Greater Chennai Corporation to increase the monthly rent for a shop, from where an overseas travel agency was being run at C.P. Ramaswamy Road in Alwarpet, from ₹3,702 to ₹ 21,160.
Filing an affidavit on behalf of the petitioner, her authorised signatory Mohan Menon said: “I state that my business has suffered from the recent demonetisation, GST (Goods and Services Tax) and general downward trend in the business. Further, online business has also increased the competition and I am somehow running this business on meagre margins.”
Accusing the Corporation of having enhanced the monthly rent without any basis, the affidavit stated: “No method of calculation has been given as to how the Corporation of Chennai arrived at such an exorbitant figure. No yardstick has been followed. I submit that no expert committee was appointed or consulted by the Corporation officials.”
Though the petitioner sent a reply to the Corporation refusing to accept the enhancement, the zonal officer of the civic body ignored the reply and confirmed the proceedings issued by the Corporation on June 23.
It went on to accuse the Corporation of not maintaining the shopping complex in which the shop was situated.
The zonal officer had said that the decision to enhance the rent, in consonance with the market price, for the shops situated in the shopping complex had been taken in view of the completion of the lease period of nine years. It also stated that the tenants would have to pay enhanced rent from March 1 along with service charge at the rate of 15%.
