Actor Rajinikanth has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court challenging the demand of property tax to the tune of ₹6.50 lakh for his Raghavendra marriage hall located at Kodambakkam here.
His case against the demand made by the Greater Chennai Corporation for the half-yearly period, from April to September, has been listed for admission before Justice Anita Sumanth on Wednesday.
According to the case filed by the actor, through his counsel Vijayan Subramanian, he had been paying property tax regularly for the marriage hall. The tax was paid last on February 14.
Subsequently the pandemic broke out, forcing the Centre and State governments to impose a lockdown. As a result, his marriage hall had remained vacant and was not rented to anyone since March 24.
In such circumstances, the actor received a property tax invoice from the Corporation on September 10, asking him to pay ₹6.50 lakh as property tax for the months April through September.
Stating that he had cancelled all bookings for his marriage hall after March 24 and even refunded the advance money in accordance with the government instructions, the actor said he was entitled to vacancy remission on property tax.
He pointed out that Section 105 of the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act of 1919 provides for remission of tax if the premises remained vacant for over 30 days and insisted on according the benefit to him.
The actor also said he had sent a notice in this regard to the Corporation on September 23 but there was no reply till date. He sought for a direction to the civic body to dispose of his notice and not levy penalty or interest till then.
