Chennai: Madras High Court on Tuesday refused to grant relief to Amrutanjan Limited against a 9.7 crore demand made by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department in rental arrears for occupying 33,000 sqft land belonging to the Mylapore Kapaleeswarar temple. The first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan dismissed an appeal moved by the company challenging a single judge order, which refused to interfere in the demand made by HR and CE department. “As rightly observed by the single judge, if the plea of the appellant that the condition mandating pre-deposit is onerous is accepted, then the religious institutions, which heavily depend on such rental incomes, would not be able to maintain the properties and fulfil the religious duties,” the court said.According to the HR and CE department, the land was given on a 99-year lease to one P R Sundera Iyer in 1901, and he assigned the rights to Amrutanjan, which was paying just 1,400 rent. After issuing a notice for enhanced rent, the tenancy was terminated with effect from Oct 31, 2001, and it was directed to vacate the land. Aggrieved, the company challenged the order in 2005. On Sept 25, 2025, a single judge of the court passed an order in favour of the department.
