Madras HC terms using political power to grab common man’s land 'daylight robbery'

In a major observation, the Madras High Court has opined that using political power and influence to grab land from a powerless common man is nothing short of day-light robbery.

A bench headed by Justice S.M. Subramaniam made this observation recently while hearing a contempt petition filed by a 65-year-old landlady R. Girija against a ward secretary attached to ruling DMK party S. Ramalingam.

The bench stated that the landlady and her husband are senior citizens who suffered for a long time. Under the Senior Citizen Act, it is the duty of the state and the district collector to ensure security and dignity of senior citizens.

The accused had refused to vacate the property belonging to the lady despite the court orders. The court had given orders to the police department to ensure eviction of the DMK leader within 48 hours.

The woman, who rented out her house, told the court that the arrears of rent are yet to be paid and the accused politician had not paid dues for five years using his political clout.

The lengthy court proceedings in rent control matters are being abused in order to evade eviction and recovery of rent dues. Even under new enactments attempts are made with the help of legal experts to protract the legal proceedings. Such attempts are to be thwarted, the bench stated.

The police had evicted the accused DMK leader from the premises owned by the petitioner landlady as per the court orders.