CHENNAI : There is no rationale behind the differential treatment between a sitting Chief Minister and a former Chief Minister and the same is in violation of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution, more particularly when the same is not the ground for rejection of the place of burial stated in the press release, the Madras High Court has said in its detailed order permitting the burial of late DMK chief M Karunanidhi at Anna Memorial.
The first bench of Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice SS Sundar had allowed a petition by RS Bharathi, DMK organising secretary, which challenged an August 7 government press release and sought a directive to the authorities to allot land to lay the mortal remains of Karunanidhi, a former CM, on the Marina within the precincts of Anna Memorial.
In the detailed order, the court said such an analogy could not be drawn as in its considered opinion, the Dravidian patriarch was all along with the late C N Annadurai and had carried forward the Dravidian ideologies. The Dravidian movement which had been followed by great leaders was accepted by a majority of Tamil Nadu people as a matter of sentiment or regionalism. “Such public sentiments, practices and customs should also be respected as a matter of convention,” the court said.
With regard to violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone, the bench said the counter filed by the State to a separate writ petition ran counter to the stand taken in the present petition. In the former, the Director of Environment had stated that there was no legal impediment for constructing the memorial for the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on the Marina.
Since the government had taken a specific stand that there was no legal impediment for constructing the memorial for Jayalalithaa in the same place, it was not open to the government now to come up with a case that there were legal hurdles. In the entire counter, the authorities had not stated anything about the hurdles that stood in the way of the government for earmarking a place for laying the mortal remains of Karunanidhi, the court said.
BHARAT RATNA SOUGHT FOR KAlaignar
New Delhi:DMK MP Tiruchi Siva on Friday asked the Centre to posthumously confer Bharat Ratna to M Karunanidhi as a tribute to his exemplary work for the people. Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Siva said Karunanidhi was a Dravidian stalwart and the tallest leader of the country. Karunanidhi contributed 80 years to public life, fighting for the cause of the downtrodden, he said. “I would urge the Government to confer upon him posthumous Bharat Ratna which will be a real tribute for his exemplary work.”