Vijayakant to hand over hall before May 15

Chennai, Apr 12 (UNI) Actor-turned- politician and DMDK founder President Vijayakant today filed an affidavit before the Madras High Court, giving an undertaking that he would hand over the possession of the marriage hall in Koyambedu by May 15 to the authorities concerned.

Vijayakant and five others filed the affidavit, when the petition seeking extension of time for handing over the possession of the marriage hall came up for a hearing before a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Mr Justice K Chandru.

Following this, the Bench adjourned the hearing to tomorrow.

In their affidavit, they submitted that they will deliver vacant possession of the portion of the land and the superstructure, which was acquired by the Union Government to the authority concerned on May 15 without prejudice to their right to claim sufficient compensation or alternative allotment of land.

In the award dated December eight, 2006, the compensation was very low and arbitrary. The valuation of lands and the assessment of the value of the superstructure by the authorities were not in accordance with law. The officials had failed to consider the fact that the marriage hall was a huge, well designed, newly built modern hall with granite and marble flooring, costly interior decorations, artistic woodwork, centralized AC plant by spending crores of money.

Hence it was necessary to direct the authorities to evaluate the marriage hall by the engineers of both the petitioners and authorities jointly and to submit their report before the superstructure was demolished, they added.

It may be recalled that earlier, they challenged the Union Government's move to acquire the lands for the purpose of constructing a grade separator in Koyambedu. The Madras High Court dismissed their petition. The SLP filed by them was also dismissed by the Supreme Court. When they sought time to hand over the possession, the apex court directed them to approach the concerned court. Hence they filed the present petition, seeking extension of time.

UNI