The Madras high court chided Tamil film superstar Rajinikanth for rushing to it to have a demand for property tax of Rs. 6.5 lakh by the Greater Chennai Corporation for his Raghavendra Mandapam (marriage hall) remitted. The court accepted the memo filed by the superstar’s counsel to agree to withdraw the plea.
The memo was filed after the judge warned of imposing costs on the petitioner for rushing to the court without giving sufficient time for the Corporation officials to consider his plea for tax remission.
Justice Anita Sumanth told the counsel that she had been telling litigants not to waste judicial time by filing cases immediately after sending representations to officials concerned. She said, litigants must send reminders as well to the officials, if required.
In his affidavit, Rajinikanth had stated that he was the owner of Raghavendra Mandapam and he had been paying property tax regularly for the hall. The second half-yearly tax for 2019-20 was paid on February 14. Although he had not let out the marriage hall during the pandemic, he had received a tax invoice from the Greater Chennai Corporation on September 10, asking him to pay Rs. 6,50,660 towards property tax for the marriage hall for the half-yearly period from April to September. On September 23, the actor sent a notice to the Corporation, claiming that he was entitled to vacancy remission on property tax.
He also urged the court to restrain the Corporation from levying 2% penalty, with interest, for the non-payment of property tax before October 15.