CHENNAI: Welcoming the Madras High Court order that they are the Class II legal heirs of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, her niece and nephew J Deepa and Deepak Jayakumar on Wednesday said they would be challenging the Tamil Nadu government’s recent ordinance promulgated to temporarily take possession of her residence Veda Nilayam and establish a foundation to convert it into a memorial.
“We welcome the verdict accepting us (Deepa and Deepak) as legal heirs of the former Chief Minister. Also, the court has dismissed the plea for appointing an administrator for the properties of the late Chief Minister. We will be challenging the recent ordinance of the state government issued to convert Veda Nilayam into a memorial in the near future and will seek a stay on that ordinance,” J Deepa told The New Indian Express.
Expressing happiness over the court declaring them as legal heirs of Jayalalithaa, her nephew Deepak Jayakumar said, “I thank the judiciary for this. We will be getting legal opinion based on today’s verdict and submit our views before the Court in the next hearing.”
Deepak has strong views regarding the ordinance promulgated by the state government: “When petitions are pending before the High Court, the government should not have promulgated this ordinance to convert Veda Nilayam as a memorial. It is not public property to be declared a memorial without the consent of the legal heirs.”
“Let Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam establish memorials for Amma (J Jayalalithaa) in their own lands in Theni district and in Salem district,” he said.
“I am 40 now and my sister is 44. We don’t have any selfish motive behind claiming ourselves as the legal heirs of Jayalalithaa. Since we are the legal heirs, we wish to form a trust with the properties of our aunt and serve the people. But we both should do it and not the government,” Deepak said.