The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday asked the Madurai Corporation Commissioner to constitute an adequate number of special teams to verify the property tax assessment of buildings in the city.

The State government told a Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and G. Arul Murugan that the Special Investigation Team formed to probe the scam had accelerated the investigation and had sought data from the Director of Municipal Administration.

The court directed the SIT to look into why there was undervaluation and who was responsible for it. The court posted the matter for hearing on August 20 for Madurai Corporation Commissioner to file a report on the constitution of special teams.

Earlier, the court had directed the Inspector-General of Police (South Zone) and the Madurai Commissioner of Police to constitute an SIT, headed by a senior IPS officer, to conduct an investigation into the property tax scam. Following this, an SIT, led by Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Madurai Range) Abhinav Kumar, had been constituted.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by AIADMK Councillor T. Ravi (Ward No. 83) of Madurai, who had sought the transfer of the probe into the scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The petitioner said last year, information regarding the alleged scam surfaced and several persons had benefited. Based on a complaint given to the Corporation Commissioner, a committee had been constituted to detect any irregularities.

After receiving the report of the committee, the Corporation Commissioner lodged a complaint with Madurai City Commissioner of Police. The scam, which occurred between 2022 and 2024, had caused a loss of about ₹200 crore to the civic body, he alleged.

The petitioner said though the complaint was lodged by the Corporation Commissioner in 2024, a case was registered only in 2025, after about seven months. There was a delay in registering the case, he said and added that action was being taken against low profile persons and not the real culprits.

Earlier, the court had observed that the scam of this magnitude had to be investigated by an IPS officer, and the probe should be monitored by higher authorities to ensure that there were no lapses, and that the guilty were not spared. All those responsible for causing the loss to the Corporation should be prosecuted, the court said.