The Madras High Court has restrained the Inspector General of Registration, District Registrar (Chennai - South) and Avadi Sub Registrar from registering any kind of document or deed with respect to around 88 acres of land purchased at Vellanur village in Tiruvallur district for providing housing plots to the members of Government Telecommunication Employees Cooperative Society Limited.
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Justice B. Pugalendhi also injuncted the society and its Board of Director from either dealing with the funds of the society or alienating its properties by way of sale, mortgage and so on. The interim injunctions were granted till March 10 following a writ petition filed by a member of the society alleging large scale maladministration of the society and attempts made to sell away its properties.
The judge pointed out that the writ petitioner N. Babu was serving as a Sub Divisional Engineer in Chennai Telephones and he was also a member of the cooperative society. According to the litigant, the society had purchased 95.55 acres in Vellanur in 2004-05 for a total consideration of ₹15.97 crore. The objective was to provide house sites to all members of the cooperative society.
Out of the total extent of land, about seven acres were acquired by the highways department and so the society was left with 88.55 acres. In 2017, the Board of Directors, without the consent of the general body, sold 14.58 acres of the land to a private firm OTCO International Limited of Bengaluru and that firm, in turn, had sold a portion of the land to Jesus Ministries of Chennai for ₹25 crore, the petitioner alleged.
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Claiming that the Board of Directors was planning to sell the remaining land too, the petitioner urged the court to constitute a committee headed by a retired High Court judge, and comprising eminent and honest persons as its members, to inquire into the working, finances and other activities of the cooperative society since 2010.