‘Plea on Thevar memorial must be heard in civil court’

MADURAI:  The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court refused to interfere with the State government’s possession of freedom fighter Muthuramalinga Thevar’s memorial, saying the matter has to be taken up in a civil court.

Justice R Vijayakumar passed the order recently while disposing a petition filed by N Gandhi Meenal, granddaughter of maternal aunt of the freedom fighter, in 2012. She had challenged an order passed by the Ramanathapuram Collector in July 2012, entrusting the memorial building and land to the Publications and Tourism (Memorial) department of the State government.

Meenal said the land and property in dispute have been in the custody of the family of the late leader for more than 260 years. A portion of his house was converted into a memorial and a temple while Meenal is residing in the other portion. In addition to regular pujas, guru puja is performed by Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar Trust (in which she is one of the trustees) on October 30 every year, which is attended by dignitaries from all over India, Meenal said.

She further claimed that besides maintenance, she pays tax and electricity bills for the building. However, the government wrongly reclassified the property from ‘grama natham’ to ‘government poramboke’ without her knowledge and usurped the property, Meenal alleged.

These allegations were refuted by Additional Advocate General Veera Kathiravan, who said the memorial was being maintained by the government, which spent more than Rs 1.4 crore since 2012 to make security arrangements for the guru puja celebrations. The land is clearly a government poramboke and unless the property is in possession of the government, it would be difficult to regulate the gathering during the above event, he added.