State govt. told to file counter affidavit to a writ petition filed by J. Deepak
The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the State government to file its counter affidavit to a writ petition filed by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s nephew J. Deepak challenging the validity of Tamil Nadu Puratchi Thalaivi Dr. J. Jayalalithaa Memorial Foundation Act of 2020, enacted for converting her residence, ‘Veda Nilayam’, into a memorial.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy agreed with Advocate-General Vijay Narayan that the petitioner may not have, prima facie, made out strong grounds for declaring the law invalid. However, they questioned as to how many memorials the government would keep establishing by acquiring private buildings and occupying public spaces.