JEDDAH – The issue of the much sought after 4th campus of the International Indian School — Jeddah (IISJ) has ended up in court. "The managing committee (MC) has received a summons from the Jeddah public court to appear on Dec. 19 following a suit filed by the private landlord of the building. This was after the MC's decision to terminate the building rental contract due to non-compliance of some of the terms and conditions," said Mohamed Iqbal, chairman of the committee. The landlord approached the court seeking a claim of SR15 million, he said. Addressing the parents at a recent interactive session, Iqbal made public the sequence of events that led the issue reaching the court. The previous MC had signed in October 2015 a contract with the landlord for the new campus in Rihab district on an annual rent of SR 5.1 million. There was a clause to pay two years' rent totaling SR10.2 million in advance. However, the opening of the campus had got delayed due to refusal of license by the Civil Defense authorities to one of the three buildings in the campus. They instructed that one building cannot be used at all, and hence it had to be demolished and reconstructed. The authorities found that the building's internal walls were made of gypsum and the ceiling was made of some metal. When the new MC took over last June, Iqbal said, the approval for the new campus had not been made till that time. "Subsequently, the Higher Board, which is monitoring all the Indian community schools in the Kingdom, deputed a committee to examine the issue, and the committee submitted its report. According to the economic feasibility estimates of the Board, the rent should not exceed SR3.8 million per year." "In this scenario, the MC decided not to go ahead with the new campus plan unless the landlord fully adheres to the contractual obligations with regard to the fitness of buildings. We met the landlord several times and discussed with him the issue, and the last sitting was in the presence of Indian Consul General Mohammed Noor Rahman Sheikh, but even at that time he was adamant and did not listen to our request of re-erection of the said building." This was what necessitated the termination of the contract as the community school is not liable to pay for an unfit building, said Iqbal. "The MC had sent a termination letter on June 28 based on contract clauses that say unless there was an approval from the authorities the contract would be deemed null and void," he said, adding that the MC has hired a lawyer to appear in the court after getting approval from the Higher Board.
