A day after the Madras High Court warned actor Rajinikanth for hurriedly approaching the judiciary against the property tax notice issued by the Greater Chennai Corporation, the superstar has, on Thursday, acknowledged his mistake and paid the property tax of Rs 6.50 lakh that was levied on his marriage hall. 

Rajinikanth owns a marriage hall, Raghavendra Mandapam in Kodambakkam in Chennai, and the Greater Chennai Corporation had issued a notice to his property and demanded the actor to pay the tax. However, after receiving the notice, the actor had approached the Madras High Court against the corporation's demand to pay the tax. In his petition, Rajinikanth said that the marriage hall has been vacant since March 24, 2020, due to the lockdown and restrictions and the marriage hall had earned no revenue during the period of lockdown.

The actor argued that amid no income, the civic body had issued him a notice on September 10 to pay the property tax for the months of April to September. He further stated that he had canceled all the bookings for his marriage hall in the wake of the restrictions and claimed that he had refunded the advance money to the parties. The actor highlighted that as per the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act of 1919, the tax can be remitted if the premises remained vacant for over 30 days. 

By claiming that he can remit the tax, he said that the civic body had issued a notice to him to pay the property tax despite knowing the regulation. As he challenged the notice, he sought the directive from the High Court against the civic body regarding its notice. His petition came to hearing on Wednesday before the High Court bench headed by Justice Anitha Sumanth. 

During the hearing, the justice had observed that the actor had hurriedly approached the court within ten days of receiving the notice and the High Court had issued a stern warning that they could be imposed with the penalty as they rushed to the judiciary within four days of receiving the notice. The High Court had castigated the actor's counsel for wasting the court's time and asked him to appeal to the corporation following which the counsel had agreed to withdraw the petition.

On Thursday, a day after Rajinikanth had withdrawn the petition, the actor has acknowledged his mistake of approaching the judiciary and said that he should be appealed to the corporation. By taking to Twitter, the actor and political hopeful said, "Raghavendra hall property tax...We should have appealed to the corporation and could have avoided the mistake". He posted the message with the hashtag of #ExperienceIsLesson. Hours after the message, the superstar has paid the property tax of Rs 6.50 lakh to the corporation and ended the matter. 

 

ராகவேந்திரா மண்டப சொத்து வரி...

நாம் மாநகராட்சியில் மேல்முறையீடு செய்திருக்க வேண்டும்.

தவறைத் தவிர்த்திருக்கலாம்.#அனுபவமே_பாடம்

— Rajinikanth (@rajinikanth) October 15, 2020