Info sought on political leaders’ memorials

CHENNAI: The Second bench of the Madras High Court has directed the State government to file an affidavit giving details of the properties so far declared as memorials in memory of various political leaders.

The bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and Anita Sumanth gave the directive when the PIL petition from social activist ‘Traffic’ K R Ramaswamy came up for further hearing on Thursday. The bench also directed the authorities to inform the court about the enactments, which govern the provisions relating to declaring any property - private or government - as memorials to perpetuate the memory of political leaders.

The Income Tax department was also directed by the judges to apprise them about the income-tax due to the department and the status of recovery, if any, and as to whether they are objecting to or supporting the move to convert the Poes Garden residence of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa into a memorial.
The matter stands adjourned till January 24.

The petitioner contended that the State should not be permitted to set up a memorial for Jayalalithaa who had been convicted in the disproportionate assets case by Supreme Court.