Social activist ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy has moved the High Court of Madras against the State’s decision to turn the Poes Garden residence of former Tamil Nadu chief-minister J. Jayalalithaa into a Memorial.

It may be recalled that Jayalalithaa passed away (was declared dead, actually) on 05th December, 2016 after a prolonged hospitalization of 75 days at the Apollo Hospitals.  Govt. of Tamil Nadu announced a few months back its decision to convert ‘Veda Nilayam’, the famed Poes Garden residence of the late chief-minister, into a Memorial for people to come and pay homage to her.

Measures to convert it into a Memorial have commecned with local District Collector and other Revenue officials taking measurements and reviewing the site last week. It is in this backdrop that ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy has moved the High Court of Madras against the State’s decision to convert the residence of an ‘accused person’ into a Memorial.

In his petition filed with the High Court of Madras, Ramaswamy had said that Jayalalithaa had not been declared as innocent in the misappropriation of assets case verdict. “As such, her residence should not be converted into a Memorial,” he said in his petition which is likely to be taken up very soon by the High Court of Madras.