HC unseals Kilpauk school that owes ₹13cr rent to Kanchi temple

HC unseals Kilpauk school that owes ₹13cr rent to Kanchi temple

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 17.11.2020

Coming to the rescue of a 40-year-old school sealed by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department for nonpayment of rent to a temple, the Madras high court has ordered the department to remove the seal and permit functioning of the school.

Justice N Anand Venkatesh passed the order while directing the Dharmapuri Rao Bahadur, Calavala Cunnan Chetty's Charities which runs Seetha Kingston Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Kilpauk to pay ₹20 lakh as monthly rent for occupying the land owned by Kanchipuram Arulmigu Ekambaranathar Thirukkoil. The school owed an accumulated rent to the tune of ₹13 crore to the temple. The trust challenged the lock and seal of its premises on July 23, and requested the court to fix the rent as ₹15 lakh per month.

When the plea came up for hearing, the trust submitted that it is not in a financially healthy position and it will not be able to pay ₹25 lakh as rent per month demanded by the department. On its part, the temple wanted the court to consider its loss in revenue due to non-payment of rental arrears to the tune of ₹13 crore by the school.

Recording the submissions, the court said, “this court, while fixing the tentative rent payable by the trust, must come up with some practical solution since if it ultimately becomes impossible of performance, from the point of view of the trust, a situation may arise where the trust will not be able to pay the monthly rent as fixed by this court.”

Again, the parties will come back to this court and there will be more uncertainty in running the school during this academic year, the judge said.

Fixing ₹20 lakh as the tentative monthly payable by the trust, the court added: “In case the trust is not able to come to a settlement with the temple and resolve the dispute, the students and the staff belonging shall be informed latest by March 2021 to look for an alternative school to continue their studies/employment.”