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Madras Race Club to challenge Tamil Nadu govt’s termination notice
On September 9, revenue officials, accompanied by the police, sealed the club and hung a termination notice from the Chennai collector Rashmi Siddharth Zagade on the gates
A representative of The Madras Race Club (MRC) on Tuesday, September 10, said that they will be taking a legal recourse by challenging the government order against its shutdown and termination of activities.
Set up in 1777 in Chennai, the MRC has been a hub for horse racing and other recreational events after the British leased out a land parcel of 160 acres to it in March 1946 for 99 years. An annual rent of ₹614.13 was fixed for the club which is located in the city’s Guindy area. A suburb back in the day, it is now a prime property in the city.
Drama unfolded around 8 am on September 9 when revenue officials, accompanied by the police, sealed the club and hung a termination notice from the Chennai collector Rashmi Siddharth Zagade on the gates.
However, the MRC filed an urgent appeal in the Madras high court which was heard a few hours later.
The club paid the amount upfront to the then Governor of Madras Presidency so the Tamil Nadu government has not received any money from them.
On September 6, the state’s revenue and disaster management department issued an order based on the Chennai district collector’s report to annul the lease deed with immediate effect with an intention to take over the prime land in public interest to create open spaces, utilities, gardens and offices.
“The lands now serve a limited purpose of few individuals who are interested in horse racing, recreation and entertainment,” the state said in its order. “It is in overall public interest that such an invaluable green area occupied by the race course grounds is made accessible to the larger public of Chennai by provisioning of public utilities, public offices, public gardens and public open spaces.”
The government then gave MRC 14 days’ time to remove its moveable properties.
The government’s action came after an interim order by the Madras high court on September 4 left it open to the government to terminate the lease if it is permissible under the law. “This Court clarifies that it is open to the respondents to terminate the lease, if it is permissible in law,” the court had said. “This need not be taken as a direction, since this Court only clarifies the scope of the interim order. This order is without prejudice to the contentions or legal issues that may be raised by the writ petitioner/appellant, in case the lease is terminated.”
The MRC has contended the state action saying that it misunderstood the order and sealed the premises without even considering that the horses need to be fed.
Arguing for the MRC in the court, advocate Vaibhav R Venkatesh said that the tehsildar did not have the powers to issue a demand notice for rental arrears and that the lease clause states that the rent cannot be revised.
The lease for the MRC is valid until April 1, 2045. The court criticised the state for its high handedness of locking and sealing the premises with a posse of police personnel.
“We have requested the government to remove the lock and seal so that the horses inside the stable can come out and be fed,” said an MRC representative who did not wish to be named. “We will be challenging the government order.”
In its urgent appeal, the MRC did not challenge the government’s order but moved the high court against what it called an “unlawful eviction”.
Tamil Nadu’s advocate general P S Raman informed the court that the government order is only to communicate their decision that they are terminating the lease. The state would pass separate proceedings to terminate the lease and will thereafter, “initiate proceedings to take possession of the land in the manner known to law”.
In their orders released on Tuesday, a bench of justices SS Sundar and K Rajasekar observed that there is no cause for clarifying their interim orders from September 4 and left it open to the MRC to challenge the government order or any other subsequent proceedings.
The court also made it clear that they have neither heard the parties nor opined on the right of the state government to terminate the lease.
In 1970, when Tamil Nadu reviewed its land assets and value, it revised the charges and the MRC was asked to pay 14% rental of the market value of the land every year.
But this has been mired in litigation as the lease agreement does not have any clause for further change of the rent or increases in rent by state authorities. From 1974-2004, the state says that the MRC owes ₹310.07 crore as rent. Until 2017, the rental arrears stand at ₹730 crore, the government has said.
C P Satyajit, a former member of the Chennai Riding School which comes under the MRC, says that if it is a choice between opening the place to public versus racing, he would go with the former.
“There is big money in racing and a lot of personal gains are made by a very few people. Racing has its share of politics, fiefdom, the bets were controlled and it’s only recently become a fairer space than it used to be earlier,” he says.
“Whether its closure will affect racing in the city is vague but I think equestrian is more regulated and organised which needs encouragement and support which racing has enjoyed for many years now.”
The club’s premises also has a golf course, a gallery named after the late industrialist MAM Ramaswamy, who was one of the country’s biggest racehorse owners, serving as the MRC’s chairman.
“It’s like a paradise within the city which is kept open thanks to the racing club. So, from that perspective, keeping that space as it is whether it is for racing or not racing is more vital to the topic.”
