Chennai: 5 pleas against displaying J Jayalalithaa's portraits dismissed
Chennai: The Madras high court has dismissed five public interest litigations filed against displaying the portraits/ photographs of former chief minister late J.Jayalalithaa in government offices and schemes and construction of memorial for her at Marina beach, for default of non-appearance of counsels on behalf of the petitioners.
The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice A.Selvam dismissed the PILs from DMK MLA J.Anbazhagan, Advocates Forum for Social Justice president K.Balu, advocate S.Doraisamy, Chennai district secretary of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kalagam C.Kumaran and social activist Traffic Ramaswmay.
In his petition, Anbazhagan sought to quash a government order in so far as it does not prohibit display of portraits and photographs of chief ministers, who have been convicted and found guilty of corruption charges by a court of law.
Balu sought a direction to the authorities to remove the photographs of Jayalalithaa and the word “Amma”, who was found guilty by the Supreme Court in disproportionate wealth case from the government welfare schemes.
Doraisamy in his petition sought a direction to the Chennai corporation to remove the body of Jayalalithaa from the Chennai Marina beach situated behind the memorial of former chief minister M.G.Ramachandran.
Kumaran sought to restrain the authorities from raising any memorial for Jayalalithaa by spending government funds at the Marina beach or elsewhere and also to direct them to remove her portraits from the public places.
Ramaswamy sought a direction to the authorities to relocate the memorials of former chief ministers C.N.Annadurai, M.G.Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa at Marina beach to Gandhi Mandapam in Kotturpuram to protect the coastal zones of Tamil Nadu, On coming to know that the petitions were dismissed for default of non-appearance, the counsels representing the petitioner later in the afternoon appeared before the Bench and sought permission to file petitions to restore the petitions. The bench permitted them to do so.
