Chennai: A fresh PIL has been moved in the Madras court seeking to restrain the state from spending public money for constructing memorial for former CM late J Jayalalithaa in Marina. The petition was filed a fortnight after five litigations moved against constructing memorial for Jayalalithaa was withdrawn to enable the removal of legal hurdles in getting space for former CM and DMK chief late M Karunanidhi on Marina.
In the petition, Desiya Makkal Katchi, represented by its president ML Ravi, wanted the court to recover any public money spent by the government so far for the memorial at Marina. He said the State Government proposed to construct a memorial for Jayalalithaa at an estimate of '50.8crore at Marina, which falls under coastal regulatory zone and tourist place. On May 7, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam laid the foundation stone for construction of the memorial and over two acres of land has been earmarked. He made representation to the chief secretary that tax payers' money should not be used for construction of memorial for Jayalalithaa at Marina since she has been convicted by the Supreme Court. The conviction was abated since she died.
When the petition came up for hearing before a division bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad, on Friday Justice Prasad recused himself from hearing the case since he was the AAG for Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court before his elevation as judge.
Later, the plea was referred to the Chief Justice VK Tahilramani for listing before a different bench.
