Bidder says it belongs to Reserve Forest department

Row over Standard Motors land

The much sought-after Standard Motors property, spread over 57.8 acres at Perungalathur near Chennai, is bogged down in controversy.

The counsel for Shriram Properties, which successfully bid for the property recently, said that the land belonged to the Reserve Forest Department of the Central government. Consequently, it is not a Standard Motors' property, he contended.

The property had been put up for auction last November. However, the deal was not completed due to various reasons.

When asked about the property ownership, Abudu Kumar Rajarathinam, counsel for Shriram Properties, said, "The title of the Standard Motors property is unclear and therefore we have submitted for a clarification with Madras High Court on the clarity of the title to proceed further."

M Murali, managing director, Shriram Properties, told Business Standard that the developer had asked for some clarifications regarding the ownership of the property. However, he declined to spell out the details of the clarifications sought.

Real estate consultants here said that the property spreading over 27 acres behind the 57.8-acre Standard Motors property belonged to the Reserve Forest Department. Real estate developers, however, claimed that there is clarity about the legal title of the property which Shriram Properties is seeking from the court.

Earlier, the Madras High Court confirming the sale, directed Shriram Properties to deposit the balance amount of Rs 139.90 crore with the official liquidator on or before November 30, 2005 as the company had already deposited Rs 14.20 crore.

The property was auctioned in November 2004.

The official liquidator was also directed to work out the claims of 2,609 workmen within a period of one month, the judge said and posted the matter to December 1st, 2005.