Unauthorised subletting of properties in T.N. will be registered as criminal cases: DGP at Madras High Court

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The Tamil Nadu Director General of Police/Head of Police Force Shankar Jiwal (DGP/HoPF) has informed the Madras High Court of having instructed all police officials across the State to register First Information Reports (FIRs) if tenants end up subletting immovable properties without the consent of landlords.

Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira was informed by Government Advocate (criminal side) S. Santhosh of a circular issued by the DGP/HoPF instructing all police personnel in the State to not brush aside subletting complaints from landlords as civil disputes and instead register FIRs under appropriate provisions of law.

The submission was made after the judge took cognisance of a novel modus operandi being adopted by many criminal elements who take immovable properties on lease by pretending to be genuine tenants and then sub lease them for much higher amounts to third parties without the consent of the landlords.

The judge also pointed out that when the landlords come to know of the illegality, the culprits cleverly give a civil colour to the criminal offence and escape from the clutches of law, after swindling all the money, by leaving the landlords and the sub tenants to fight out before the civil courts for years together.

After calling for statistics, Justice Chandira found that 40 such cases involving 67 victims were pending before Greater Chennai City Police, 342 victims had been affected in Tambaram Commissionerate, 20 victims in Avadi Commisssionerate and 1,020 victims in the cases pending before the Economic Offences Wing.

In all, the amount cheated was nearly ₹65 crore and some of those cases were pending since 2013. Therefore, the judge asked State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohamed Jinnah to take the issue to the notice of the DGP/HoPF and find a solution to the problem by preventing gullible landlords from getting cheated.

Accordingly, he was informed on Tuesday (April 22, 2025) that apart from the circular, the DGP had also taken steps to create video messages to create awareness among the general public and let them circulate on social media.

After watching the video, Justice Chandira requested the broadcast media to circulate it widely on their television channels and also insisted on circulating it on the social media in order to deter people from falling prey to fraudulent people in the future.

He also recorded the court’s appreciation for Mr. Jinnah, Mr. Jiwal and Mr. Shankar.