Karnataka Sangha violated corporation lease: Petition

 

Chennai: The Nungambakkam cultural academy trust (NCAT) has approached the Madras high court to direct the Chennai corporation to enquire into the breach of covenants of lease committed by the Karnataka Sangha in T. Nagar in sub-letting the property for commercial purposes, terminate the lease deed and take possession of it.

 

Justice K.K. Sasidharan, before whom the petition filed by NCAT by its managing trustee S. Venkataraman came up for hearing, ordered notice to the corporation and Karnataka Sangha (KS) and posted to November 25 further hearing of the case.

 

According to the petitioner, the former managing trustee of NCAT staged cultural programmes, known to be the December series, in the auditorium of KS for many years by paying rent and it came to light that KS had recorded such amounts as donations.

 

Since he did not running the administration properly and there was huge loss, the board of trustees removed him on March 12, 2012 and appointed the petitioner as the managing trustee. During enquiry before the board of trustees, the former managing trustee informed that huge arrears were due to KS and NCAT has to settle it.

 

But, despite several letters from the petitioner, KS produced no statement of accounts duly signed by the appropriate authority. 

 

Moreover, KS had not remitted service tax on rental collections and the former managing trustee had not deducted TDS on the rentals.

 

Through an RTI query, the petitioner came to know that the property in which KS was running the Karnataka school belongs to Chennai corporation. There was a lease deed, dated October 14, 1986, for 33 years, between KS and the corporation.