Judge recuses from Jaya house memorial case

When the plea filed by filed by social activist ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy opposing the conversion of Jayalalithaa’s Veda Nilayam residence came up before the bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad on Thursday, the latter judge made it known that he had appeared for Jayalalithaa in a case when he was a lawyer and hence it would not be proper for him to hear the case.

Following this, Justice Manikumar directed that the matter be posted before some other bench.

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.

It may be noted that while the AIADMK government had announced the conversion of Jayalalithaa’s residence into a memorial, the Income Tax Department had informed the Madras High court that Veda Nilayam has been under attachment with the department since 2007 for Rs 16 crore tax dues.

Further, even J Deepa and J Deepak, niece of and nephew of Jayalalithaa have also challenged the conversion of the Poes Garden residence into a memorial stating that their aunt’s property belongs to them as per the Hindu Succession Act of 1956.