A creditor of the Kochi Corporation has moved a step closer to realising the amount due to him from the civic body on Monday with a civil court serving the notice for attaching its property.
The Sub Court, Ernakulam, served a notice on the Kochi Corporation, restraining it from selling, transferring or gifting all the “parts and parcels of land having an extent of 25.506 ares in survey number 843 including a building under construction, which is owned by Cochin Corporation” on Monday afternoon.
It was the upcoming office building of the civic body at Marine Drive that was attached by the court on a petition from Sundararajan of Pollachi, Tamil Nadu.
The notice, which prohibited and restrained the Kochi Corporation, until further orders of the court, from transferring or changing the property by sale, gift or otherwise, was pasted on the conspicuous part on the front portion of the Corporation building. The court has also prohibited anyone from receiving the land and the building by purchase, gift or otherwise. The Sub Court has also directed the representatives of the civic body to be present at the court on Tuesday to take notice of the date fixed for setting the terms of proclamation of the sale of the property.
The civic body owes Mr. Sundararajan ₹1.42 crore towards the compensation for acquiring his holding for the development of the Sahodaran Ayyappan Road way back in 2006. The Kochi Corporation owes C.K. Vijayan of Thiruvankulam an amount of ₹69.49 lakh, which is also the compensation for his property that was acquired for the road project, said T.R.S. Kumar, the counsel for the creditors.
In his complaint to the court, the creditor had submitted that he had no other option but to attach the property and sell it to realise the money due to him. Despite waiting for long, the civic body had not paid the compensation, he complained.
Mayor M. Anilkumar said the civic body would pay whatever was due to its creditors. The option of filing an appeal at a higher court was also open before the Corporation, he said.
