Play golf elsewhere; spare Guindy property for water storage, Madras High Court tells Gymkhana Club members

It is pertinent to note that the golf course had been created on a land belonging to the government, says Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy.
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The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a writ petition filed by Madras Gymkhana Club (MGC), against damaging a golf course located within Madras Race Club (MRC) premises in Guindy, after the State government said, it had already dug the property to create four new ponds which would help prevent inundation in Velachery and other contiguous localities during heavy rains.

Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy said, it was pertinent to point out that the golf course had been created on a land belonging to the government. The property was leased out only to MRC, and not to MGC, many decades ago when Guindy was under the territorial jurisdiction of Chengalpattu Collectorate, with a rider that the Collector could enter into the property if it was required for a public purpose.

Now that the sprawling property was located in the middle of Chennai city and was surrounded by a humongous number of residential colonies and commercial buildings, it could serve as a reservoir for storing rainwater and also prevent inundation of the localities nearby. The newly-dug seven-metre-deep ponds would also improve the groundwater table in the area.

“When such is the public purpose with which it is taken, it is for the members of the petitioner club to ask themselves, can they not play golf in the other golf clubs that are available, and can they not use any other premises for their recreational club activities/bar?” the judge wrote after not finding any merits in the writ petition filed by MGC.

The judge agreed with Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran that MGC had failed to establish that it had been in existence for more than 140 years and was in occupation of the Guindy golf course even before the land was leased out to MRC. Therefore, “the writ peittion is to be dismissed on this sole ground,” he said.

Even assuming that MGC had been in existence since the late 1880s and was in possession of the Guindy golf course since then, it had failed to raise even its little finger when the government leased out the property to MRC on March 8, 1946, the judge said.

“No action whatsoever has been taken for 80 years and now, it is too late in the day for the petitioner to claim itself to be in possession (of the property),” the judge said.

“The petitioner is not pleading that it is the real owner of the property. The petitioner is not pleading that it is a sub-tenant under MRC… In the absence of any pleading relating to sub-tenancy, at best, it can be seen that it is a kind of permission/license from the Madras Race Club that was granted to the petitioner and thus, no possession can be pleaded,” the judge added.

“It is the specific pleading of the petitioner as to some permission (was granted) to enter through Gate No.5 and its members being permitted to play golf and use the bar/club. Even assuming that to be correct, the only conclusion that can be made is that the petitioner was permitted to carry on certain activities as a licensee by MRC and by the said permission, it cannot be said that the petitioner was in possession of the premises,” Justice Chakravarthy concluded.