"Why can't former Tamil Nadu chief-minister J. Jayalalithaa be exhumed?" Justice Vaidyanathan of the High Court of Madras asked the Govt. Counsel yesterday.

It may be recalled that Justice Vaidyanathan has asked so for the second time this year. Jayalalithaa was declared 'dead' brought dead by Apollo Hospital on the night of 05th December last year after she was treated by the Hospital for 75 days. After the series of confusions which the State witnessed, a 37-year old Bangalorean Amrutha has claimed that she is the actual` daughter of Jayalalithaa.

Amrutha's petition with the Supreme Court was rejected which asked her to first approach lower Courts before moving it. Amrutha's relatives Lalitha, Ranjani and Ravindranath filed a case with the High Court of Madras requesting that Amurtha be declared as Jayalalithaa's daughter. When the case was taken up yesterday, Justice Vidyanathan wondered why Jayalaltihaa couldn't be exhumed for conduct of DNA test.

The Govt. counsel said that if this was done, 1,000 such applications may be filed in future. It may be recalled that Justice Vaidyanathan had raised the same query as a vacation bench Judge while taking up Chennai-based Joseph's petition in January this year. At that time, the Judge observed that even he had doubts about the former chief-minister`s demise.

"Had I taken up the case, I would have asked the police to exhume and conduct DNA tests," Justice Viayanathan had said at that time.