Tamil Nadu’s increased property registration guidelines are overturned by the Madras High Court.

CHENNAI: A March 2023 circular from the Tamil Nadu government raising the guideline value of properties in places like Chennai, Coimbatore, and Madurai by 33% was overturned by the Madras High Court on Thursday.

Judge P. Velmurugan invalidated the circular on procedural grounds, stating that while the government was allowed to raise the guideline value, it had to follow the process outlined in the regulations, which call for the creation of an expert committee and a public hearing prior to enacting the increase.

The state established subcommittees for every district to amend the guideline values when it created the Tamil Nadu Stamp Rules in 2010. The rule took effect in 2012, implementing the revision. Following that, the valuations were altered once more in 2017, this time by the state reducing the guideline value of all land in the state by 33%.

The state decreased the registration cost and other fees while raising the value equating by 33% with effect from April 1, 2023, through the contested circular dated March 30, 2023.

Along with two individual developers, Magnum Infra and Shree Mahalaxmi Enterprises, Credai’s Chennai chapter filed a court motion to challenge the action.

“They have to get the subcommittee’s report/expert’s report and the statutory evaluation committee should fix it,” Judge Velmuguran remarked, granting their requests. They have to follow a process, such as soliciting public objections, before making any necessary corrections or revisions to the allegations. However, the court continued, “in this case, they have not done it, and as pointed out by the petitioners, it has to be done in the manner known by law.”

Previously, the petitioners contended that it was a well-established legal concept that an action should be taken in a particular way or not at all when a statute called for a particular act to be produced in a particular way.

They claimed that the circular and the exercise that led up to it should be overturned because they are not compliant with the statutory framework.

“There has been a 50% increase in such value as a result of artificially pegging the guideline value to the rates that were established nearly ten years ago,” they stated. The state argued against the plea, claiming that neither CREDAI nor the other petitioners had the necessary standing to submit the suit.

It further stated that no statutes or the 2010 Tamil Nadu Stamp (Constitution of Valuation Committee for Estimation, Publication and Revision of Market Value Guidelines of Properties) Rules had been broken.