Madras high court orders notice on Deepa’s plea against Veda Nilayam memorial

CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Monday ordered notice to the Tamil Nadu government on a plea moved by Deepa Jayakumar, niece of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, challenging its decision to convert Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence into a memorial.

Justice K Ravichandrabaabu passed the interim order and posted the plea to October 23 for further hearing.

Deepa moved the petition on the ground that the property,

Veda Nilayam

, belongs to her and her brother J Deepak under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.

Submitting that she made a representation to the government on August 22 urging it to refrain from interfering with her right over the property, she wanted the court to direct the authorities concerned to consider and dispose of her representation within a fixed time.

Deepa said her paternal grandmother Vedavalli alias Sandhya had purchased several properties in and around Chennai and died in 1971 leaving her son Jayakumar and daughter Jayalalithaa as heirs. Thereafter, the siblings lived together at the Poes Garden residence.

Jayakumar got married after his mother’s death and lived in a joint family with his wife J Vijayalakshmi, children and his sister in the same house for long, she added.

“Jayalalithaa died on December 5, 2016 leaving me and my brother as second class legal heirs to succeed her entire estate, which includes Veda Nilayam at Poes Garden,” she said.

As an immediate relief, Deepa wanted the court to pass an interim injunction restraining the government from converting Veda Nilayam into memorial pending disposal of the plea.