Madras High Court
Madras High Court came down heavily on S Ramalingam, who refused to vacate a residential flat in the commercial hub of T Nagar without paying the rent for more than 12 years. Justice SM Subramaniam ordered the Greater Chennai Police Commissioner to deploy as many police personnel as necessary to evict S Ramalingam, whom the couple claimed to be DMK ward secretary, within 48 hours. He said, “ The man is continuously disrespecting the order of this court which was affirmed by the SC”. The judge suo moto impleaded the Police commissioner as a respondent and directed him to depute enough police force to evict from the flat within 48 hours and file a compliance report on the action taken.
In 2012, landlady Girija filed a petition for eviction before the Rent Control Court, but could get favourable orders only on January 3,2022. The tenant appealed but the first appellate court dismissed his plea on September 29 last year. He filed a civil revision petition in High Court which was also dismissed by Justice SM Subramaniam on January 1. He observed that most tenants took advantage of the lengthy judicial process and continued to stay on the rented premises without any authority and in the absence of a valid agreement between them and the landlords. The tenant took this order and appealed but the SC rejected. Hence, this present contempt petition.
It is said that Ramaligam has been threatening the 64 year old landlady R Girija and refusing to vacate the premises despite several court orders directing him to vacate. Failed to evict after availing all legal options, old woman moved a contempt petition against Ramalingam for refusing to comply with the order of the court and handover vacant possession.
The petition Girija said on January 3, 2022, a rent control tribunal rejected her tenant’s application and ordered his eviction from the flat. He filed several appeals and went up to the Supreme Court. On February 24 , the apex court dismissed his appeal and confirmed the eviction order given by the tribunal. Armed with this order, Girija moved the High Court alleging that Ramalingam was threatening her and her 75 year old husband A Radhakrishnan, displaying his political clout.
During the hearing, she informed the court that the tenant had not paid the rent of Rs. 7,000 since 2017. On August 21 of last month, when the plea came up for hearing, Ramalingam told the court of his change of advocate. The court refused to entertain his plea and refused to entertain anymore adjournments. The judge ordered the police to evict him within 48 hours with full police force for peaceful eviction of Ramalingam from the building. The judge called for a compliance report from the Commissioner by September 4, 2023.
The judge said “ the politician had been continuously disrespecting court orders and therefore he must necessarily be evicted using the police force”.
A practicing advocate Jaganath said “ This is not first case. In Tamil Nadu, it is very difficult to evict a tenant if he is a politician or from a particular religion. There have been cases of DMK, VCK functionaries who refuse to vacate and pay rent. Some demand money in lakhs depending on the market value of the property or force them to sell to them at a rock bottom price or appoint them Power of Attorney which give them to sell it at higher price and cheat the client with a small amount for sale consideration. The poor middle class are the worst hit by this trend. The cases taking long years give an added advantage to the defaulters and squatters. It is the landlord who spent money and time to get orders during their life time. Some are dead even before the case was heard. This route is one of the most trusted land grabbing for politicians and the other is forging documents. DMK lost in 2011 assembly elections following a spate of land grab accusations on its functionaries. CM Jayalalithaa set up special courts to deal with them. It show the magnitude of the crime .“
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