Veda Nilayam was also the residence of two serving convicts, HC told

Activist objects to converting the house of Jayalalithaa into a memorial

Veda Nilayam, residence of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa at Poes Garden here, should not be converted into a memorial at State cost because it was also the residence of her close aides V.K. Sasikala and Ilavarasi who were now serving a four-year jail sentence in a disproportionate assets case, the Madras High Court was told on Thursday.

The submission was made before a Division Bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and Anita Sumanth during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by activist ‘Traffic’ K.R. Ramaswamy against the conversion. Though the petitioner claimed that Jayalalithaa too was a convict, the State government had stoutly denied such a claim.

During the course of arguments, the petitioner’s counsel K. Aravind said, even if Jayalalithaa could not be termed as a convict in view of an appeal against her acquittal by the Karnataka High Court having got abated in the Supreme Court due to her death on December 5, 2016, it could not be denied that Veda Nilayam was a residence of two other convicts in the case.

Counter filed

“How can a house, in which two serving convicts had resided, be converted into a memorial?” the lawyer questioned. After hearing him as well as the State government which had filed a detailed counter affidavit justifying its decision to convert the house into a memorial, the judges adjourned the case for further hearing to January 23.

In the counter affidavit, the Tamil Development and Information Secretary R. Venkatesan said, the State government had, so far, set up 68 memorials, four halls, five commemoration pillars and one monument and had been maintaining them properly. It had also, so far, converted the residences of 13 prominent leaders into memorials. Those whose houses had been converted into memorials included Mahakavi Bharathiyar, former Chief Minister K. Kamaraj, C.N. Annadurai, Thanthai Periyar, C. Rajagopalachari and so on. It was decided to convert Jayalalithaa’s residence too since she had served as Chief Minister for six times and implemented many welfare schemes.

Contending that there was no bar on converting a building in a residential locality into a memorial, the Secretary said, the property would be acquired by the State in accordance with the procedures laid down in the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013.