‘Are so many memorials necessary?’
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The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the State authorities to file its counter affidavit to a writ petition filed by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s nephew J. Deepak difficult the validity of Tamil Nadu Puratchi Thalaivi Dr. J. Jayalalithaa Memorial Foundation Act of 2020, enacted for changing her residence, ‘Veda Nilayam’, right into a memorial.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy agreed with Advocate-General Vijay Narayan that the petitioner might not have, prima facie, made out sturdy grounds for declaring the legislation invalid. However, they questioned as to how many memorials the federal government would preserve establishing by buying personal buildings and occupying public areas.
Referring to the mausoleums established for former Chief Ministers C.N. Annadurai, [M.G. Ramachandran], Jayalalithaa and M. Karunanidhi on the Marina seaside in Chennai, the Chief Justice requested: “Have you already exhausted Marina?” In reply, the A-G knowledgeable the court docket that solely a small portion of the seaside had been utilised for mausoleums.
He additionally advised the court docket that there was a apply world over to transform the residences of nice leaders into memorials. The Tamil Nadu authorities itself maintains about 17 such memorials for political leaders and people who had made important achievements in diversified fields, he advised the court docket and highlighted the achievements of Jayalalithaa.
“We do not mean disrespect to anyone,” the Chief Justice clarified and mentioned that the speed at which the federal government had been establishing memorials would sometime result in a scenario when memorials could be established even for Deputy Chief Ministers and so on. He identified that there isn’t a memorial for Winston Churchill.
Stating that there have been many judges who had made stellar contributions, the Chief Justice mentioned there might not be any house left within the court docket complicated if their statues had been erected throughout. Further, referring to the variety of portraits that had been hung all around the court docket buildings, he mentioned there would hardly be any house for any extra portraits after just a few years.
Later, the judges requested senior counsel AR.L. Sundaresan and advocate S.L. Sudarsanam, representing Mr. Deepak, to first pursue a writ petition which he had filed earlier than a single choose of the High Court difficult the acquisition proceedings. in his capability because the authorized inheritor of Jayalalithaa and be sure that the case will get disposed of on the earliest.
The current writ petition difficult the Act could possibly be taken up after that, they mentioned and adjourned it by six weeks.
