Civil Court on Monday ordered Strada Private Limited to pay MVR 1.7 million to State Trading Organisation (STO) as rent for a commercial block from the 'Aifaanu Building' (currently known as FSM Building), which was leased to the company.

The first case was lodged to determine the termination and eviction order of the agreement between STO and Strada dated 14 November 2017 for the lease of block G-A, as wrongful orders that could not be acted on. The Civil Court had then ruled in favor of Strada.

However, STO sent an eviction order on 14 October 2019 citing that they were not abiding by the court order. They added that the failure to pay the monthly rent had voided the agreement, and sought the handover of the vacant premises along with the rent until the date of the handover, accumulated fines due to failure to pay rent, and unpaid utility bills.

This verdict comes after reviewing the case yesterday.

The verdict by Civil Court states that rent should be paid for the period between February 2020 and September 2022. They further added that the amount due in rent was MVR 1.6 million, as there was a 50% reduction on rent due to the Covid-19 Pandemic from April till December 2020. With the addition of unpaid utility bills, the court had ordered Strada to pay a total of MVR 1.7 million to STO.