more-in The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) and Madras Cricket Club (MCC) received a huge relief from the Madras High Court on Friday in cases filed by them against revenue department’s demand for lease rental arrears of ?1,553 crore and ?225 crore respectively for the land on which M.A. Chidambaram cricket stadium is situated at Chepauk here. Justice K. Ravichandrabaabu recorded the undertaking of Advocate General Vijay Narayan that no coercive action shall be taken against the petitioners if they create fixed deposits for ?16.30 crore and ?2.06 crore respectively and ensure that the FDs were kept alive for six months so that the interests of all the parties to the cases could be protected. After the petitioners’ agreed to the suggestion made by the AG, the judge said: “It is made clear that the pendency of these writ petitions and granting of the interim relief herein shall not stand in the way or be a bar for the parties to go for negotiations to arrive at a viable settlement in the meantime, if possible.” Accounts to be defrozen The judge also ordered that all bank accounts of both the petitioners should be defrozen forthwith in view of the interim arrangement reached between the parties due to the intervention of the AG, who had come up with a solution that was reasonable as well as agreeable to both sides. It was the TNCA which had approached the court first against the demand for a “gargantuan” amount by the Mylapore-Triplicane Taluk towards arrears of rent from 2001. Pointing out that the Tahsildar initially demanded and collected ?32 lakh in August this year, the association said that the very next month a demand for ?1,553 crore was made. In its affidavit, the MCC said that it was shocked to receive a demand notice from the Tahsildar on September 11 for a whopping amount of ?225 crore towards rental arrears from 2001 to 2015. Since it was a non-profit organisation working towards development of sports, the club expressed its inability to pay such a huge amount.

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