The main legal point established in the judgment is the reasonableness of rent enhancement, the duty of authorities to maintain Government Residential Quarters, and the misuse of public quota for allotments.

S.M.Subramaniam, J.

The occupants of the Government Rented Residential Quarters under the Public quota are the petitioners in these writ petitions. The writ petitioners are in occupation of the Government Rented Quarters in various parts of Chennai City and more specifically, all such Government Quarters are situated in heart of the City. The dispute is in relation to the fixation of rent in respect of the occupants of the Government Rented Quarters maintained by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board.

2. The Government order issued in G.O.Ms.No.118, Housing and Urban Development (HB5-2) dated 04.07.2017 and the consequential covering Letter No.Va.Va.P.1/46173/2010 dated 07.07.2017 and the demand Letter No.P.Pa.Ko/00029/2017 dated 27.07.2017 are sought to be quashed. Further, a direction is sought for to direct the respondents to receive the old monthly rent from the petitioners tenanted premises situated in various part of the City.

3. The petitioners have raised the issues by stating that they had been allotted the Government Rented Quarters under the Public quota provided by the Government in various Government Quarters within the City. The Government of Tamil Nadu, during the year 1970 with a view to elevate the poor and downtrodden people of the society coming to the city for finding jobs and who were facing difficulty in getting flats for rent had directed the second respondent/The Tamil Nadu Housing Board to build housing flats at various part of Chennai city to provide affordable flats at rent. Accordingly, the 2nd respondent/The Tamil Nadu Housing Board had constructed flats at Peters Road, CIT Nagar, Cox Square, Foreshore Estate, Mandaveli over the lands belonging to the Government. Subsequently, the Government for maintenance and for providing other facilities to the tenants in all such buildings had appointed the 2nd respondent. Accordingly, the 2nd respondent/The Tamil Nadu Housing Board is maintaining all such Residential Quarters situated in various places within the city.

4. The 2nd respondent/The Tamil Nadu Housing Board, in the year 2002 raised a proposal to the Government to enhance the monthly rent of all the rental buildings in and around Chennai and the Government accepting the said proposal issued G.O.Ms.No.210, Housing and Urban Development (HB 5(1)) Department dated 21.08.2002. The Government had fixed rent at the rate of Rs. 5/- per sq.ft for all the Board's rental houses/flats in Chennai and Rs. 3/- per sq.ft for all the Board's houses/flats in moffusil areas. At that point of time, some of the occupants approached the Hon'ble High Court and an order was passed by the Hon'ble Division Bench in W.A.No.3292/2002 dated 15.06.2006. An Advocate Commissioner was appointed to evaluate the situation by collecting materials, and accordingly, the Court fixed the rent at the rate of 2.50 per sq.ft. in Chennai City except Cox square and Rs. 1.50 per sq.ft. in as far as the individual houses and the rent was fixed at Rs. 3/- per sq.ft. the increased rent for the mofussil area was fixed at Rs. 1.50/- per sq.ft.

5. The petitioners claim that they are all paying the monthly rent punctually and without committing any default.

6. Mr.R.Ganesh Kumar, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the writ petitioner, forcibly contended that the impugned Government order issued in G.O.Ms.No.118, Housing and Urban Development (HB5-2) Department dated 04.07.2017 is unreasonable on the ground that the Government has enhanced the monthly rent without reference to any materials available on record. The enhancement of rent is exorbitant and it was fixed with retrospective effect. Therefore, the impugned Government order and the consequential order are liable to be scrapped.

7. The petitioner states that the very purpose and object of providing public quota is to ensure that poor and needy people get rental accommodation within the city a