Ex-Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa's legal heir J Deepa has moved the High Court of Madras, challenging the proposed acquisition of Veda Nilayam her late aunt's Poes Garden residence by the Govt of Tamil Nadu to convert it into a memorial.
The primary grounds of her challenge were that the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, doesn't empower the State Govt to acquire private land to convert it into a memorial & that it has been done even without conducting & publishing social impact assessment, which is mandatory under the act.
Ms Deepa said that Apart from this, the land acquisition officer who passed the July 22 order, was not a competent authority under the act, as it empowers only the District Collector to pass such orders.
She further contended that the Land Acquisition Act doesn't provide for acquisition of movable properties in the residence like, gold, silver, jewellery & other precious items.
Hence, she sought a direction from the Court to the authorities to hand over the movable properties acquired from Veda Nilayam to her & grant an interim stay against the operation of the acquisition order, pending disposal of the petition.
The petition filed in the HC registry is likely to be taken up for hearing in the first week of Aug.
Ms Deepa also alleged that the State Govt, under the guise of establishing a memorial to the late leader, has illegally taken possession of the movable & precious materials in the house.
Terming the move to convert Veda Nilayam into a memorial a scandal, she charged the Tamil Nadu Govt with trying to usurp the property & other precious materials in it.
Asserting that the acquisition & the announcement to create a memorial for Jayalalithaa by the government was done only with political agenda in view of the coming assembly election, Ms Deepa said the state, by making public the list of precious materials available in the home, has made it vulnerable to robbery.
On the right of the income tax department over the compensation fixed by the state for pending tax dues of Ms Jayalalithaa, Ms Deepa sought an interim direction to restrain the department from withdrawing the compensation deposited with the jurisdictional civil court, pending disposal of the present plea.
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