Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012

What the law governs

The Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012 provides transition arrangements when the limits of Chennai, Madurai or Coimbatore are expanded to include an area previously administered by a municipal council, panchayat union council or village panchayat. The supplied text does not identify particular properties or describe the boundaries of any added area.

The Act amends the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919, the Madurai City Municipal Corporation Act, 1971 and the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation Act, 1981. It also begins a part concerning amendments to the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920, but the supplied text ends before those provisions are shown.

Main effects of a city expansion

When an expansion notification takes effect, the relevant transition provisions state that:

• Property, rights and interests held or used by the former local authority for the included area vest in the municipal corporation, subject to directions issued by the Tamil Nadu Government.
• Liabilities connected with the former local authority transfer to the municipal corporation.
• Tax arrears and other amounts due may be treated as corporation dues and recovered accordingly.
• Existing taxes, fees and assessments continue until they are changed, cancelled or otherwise dealt with under the applicable corporation law.
• Existing legal proceedings continue as though they had been started by or against the municipal corporation or other competent authority.
• Earlier official actions are treated as having been taken by the authority competent under the amended corporation law.
• Employees serving the transferred local body become corporation employees from the notification date, with protections for existing pay, allowances, leave, pension, gratuity, provident fund, retirement age and past service.
• Employees must be given an opportunity to choose between absorption, transfer to another specified service or retrenchment, with prescribed benefits where retrenchment occurs.

For Chennai, several transfer provisions expressly exclude water supply and sewerage functions.

Who may be affected

The Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012 may affect property owners, taxpayers, people with pending claims or proceedings, and local authority employees in an area brought within Chennai, Madurai or Coimbatore. A buyer should determine whether the property falls within an area covered by an expansion notification, because that notification activates the transfer and continuity arrangements described in the Act.