HC bench recuses itself from hearing PIL against conversion of Jayalalithaa house into memorial

A division bench of the Madras High Court Thursday recused itself from hearing a PIL against converting the residence of late Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa here into a memorial.

It took the decision saying that one of its members, Justice Subramonium Prasad, had appeared for Jayalalithaa in a case when he was a lawyer. The bench, which also included Justice S Manikumar, directed that the matter be posted before some other bench.

The public interest litigation has been filed by social activist 'Traffic' Ramaswamy opposing the conversion of Jayalalithaa's Veda Nilayam residence in the posh Poes Garden area here into a memorial, which was announced by the AIADMK government.

The petitioner has submitted that the government should not be allowed to go ahead with the memorial for Jayalalithaa using public funds, claiming that she had been "declared a convict" in a disproportionate assets case.

The Supreme Court, in its February, 2017 order, had abated the proceedings against Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case, in which she was the prime accused, in view of her death on December 5, 2016.

It, however, had convicted three other accused, including Jayalalithaa's close aide Sasikala.