When a petition filed by Tamil superstar Rajinikanth came up for hearing before Justice Anitha Sumanth on Wednesday, the judge questioned the petitioner why he reached the Madras High Court before exhausting other remedies with the Chennai Corporation. The judge also questioned why the petitioner, who wrote a letter to the city corporation on 23 September, filed a petition before the court on 29 September, asking: “How any action can be taken by the corporation in 6 days”.
Recently, Chennai Corporation sent a notice to Rajinikanth asking him to pay the property tax for his Raghvendra marriage hall property in Kodambakkam to the tune of Rs 6.50 lakh for the second quarter of the current fiscal year before 15 October. It also stated that an additional two percent will be levied as a penalty.
Rajinikanth approached the HC stating that he had properly paid the property tax till February and as there was no revenue generated from the marriage hall in the last 6 months due to Covid lockdown, he sought a direction from the court for the “vacancy remission” as per the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act.
Hearing the argument, Justice Anitha Sumanth questioned the urgency of the petitioner and asked why they approached the court urgently without approaching the corporation for remedy. She also stated that the petition could be deleted at this stage. The judge then warned the petitioner that the court will impose a huge cost for wasting its time.
After repeated appeals made by the advocate who appeared for Rajinikanth to withdraw the petition, the judge allowed him to file a memo before the court for withdrawing the petition. Accepting the memo to withdraw the petition moved by Rajinikanth’s counsel, Justice Anitha Sumanth dismissed the petition as it was withdrawn later in the day.