MGR memorial does not depict 'Two Leaves' symbol: government

Judge orders notice returnable in eight weeks

Chennai:09/12/12: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK founder renovated M.G. Ramachandran, Memorial at Anna square, which was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalitha on Sunday. Photo: R_Shivaji Rao

The Madras High Court on Thursday admitted a writ petition subject to its maintainability in which the petitioner, DMK’s legal wing secretary, has sought a direction to the State government to remove the AIADMK’s symbol of ‘Two Leaves’ from the MGR Samadhi on the Marina here.

The petitioner, R.S.Bharathi, said he was not against the remodelling of the samadhi. But, the authorities were acting in defiance of the public trust doctrine and were utilising the government property to canvass for the ruling party by spending a huge amount. When the matter came up before Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar, Advocate-General A.Navaneethakrishnan said the structure put up at the memorial was not the symbol of the AIADMK as approved by the Election Commission.

He said it was a “Y shaped structure with two wings, a honeycomb jaali arrangement at the top portion and ‘Pegasus,’ a flying horse.” There was no similarity between the structure and the party symbol.