Cosmopolitan club approaches Madras HC to stop construction on golf course

The Cosmopolitan club here has moved the Madras High Court urging that the Tamil Nadu Golf Federation (TNGF) be restrained from carrying out unauthorised construction work on the 80-acre golf course here. When the petition by the club came up, the federation gave an undertaking not to build any structure on the property without the approval of the government.

Justice R Suresh Kumar then adjourned the suit to January 28 for further hearing. The petitioner submitted that as per the government order issued on January 23, 2009, the federation and the club were joint lessees of the 80.40 acres of the golf course located in Guindy here. One of the conditions imposed by the government through the order was that the lessees shall not utilise the land for any other purpose than the one for which it has been leased out.

On the leased-out land, there shall not be any construction as well as developmental activities for the purpose of developing the golf course, without the previous sanction of the two committees, called the Land Management Committees, which are the supreme bodies, the club said. However, the federation had in violation of the order started constructing clubhouses on the land meant for the golf course, it alleged and sought the court to intervene and stop the construction.

Rejecting the allegations, the federation contended that no construction has taken place at the behest of the federation. Only for the usage by the members of the golf federation, some toilet facilities and washrooms were required and only in order to construct the same, the federation proposed to do it, with an idea of the temporary structure of toilets and washrooms. Even that activity, the federation wants to stop immediately, it said. The TNGF further gave an undertaking that no construction activities whatsoever, either on a permanent or a temporary basis, shall be undertaken without getting permission from the governmental authorities.

(With inputs from agencies.)