Picnic over after 3 decades, Corpn breathes easy

CHENNAI: It was a historic day for the city Corporation and its Commissioner D Karthikeyan on Friday after the civic body was finally able to reclaim its 13.5 grounds of land from Hotel Picnic after three decades of legal wrangling.“It’s a historic day for the Corporation as we are able to reclaim the land that was in legal dispute for over three decades,” jubilant Karthikeyan told Express. With the apex court’s deadline to hand over the land to the Corporation ending on Thursday evening, the hotel management returned the land to the civic body quietly on Friday. After the Supreme Court’s clear direction, the hotel authorities had removed all valuables from both the buildings in the premises.Victoria Public Hall Trust, which enjoyed the civic body’s 57 grounds of land on a 99-year lease since 1886 (on a rent of eight annas per ground per annum), granted a sublease of 13 grounds and 1,720 sqft) for a period of 18 years from April 1, 1968 to N D Gupta to set up a hotel.Irked over the inside deal that violated the basic conditions in the 1886-lease document, the  Corporation filed a suit in 1968 in a city civil court, challenging the sub-lease granted by the board of trustees.In the same year, it also rejected an application for the grant of a licence to run a hotel on the premises. But the refusal of the Corporation to grant a licence to run a hotel was set aside in a writ plea moved by Gupta and he was allowed to start a hotel there. The legal battle that started in 1968 continued all these years and few weeks back, the SC gave its clear verdict to the management to hand over the land to Corporation as it has plans to use it for a public purpose. The land was handed over to the Chennai Metro Rail Ltd.