Jayalalithaa’s residence ‘Veda Nilayam’ turned into a memorial

Late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa’s residence, ‘Veda Nilayam’ in Poes Garden, was formally inaugurated as a memorial Thursday by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. Deputy Chief Minister O Pannerselvam, state cabinet ministers and other senior AIADMK functionaries participated in the event and paid floral tributes to a portrait of ‘Amma’.The unveiling ceremony happened even as the state government moved the Madras High Court against the single bench’s order on Jayalalithaa’s Veda Nilayam memorial inauguration. The court is likely to hear the matter tomorrow. The Madras High Court had permitted the state government to go ahead with the inauguration today. The court had, however, restrained the government from throwing the memorial open to the public without taking permission from the court.

The court has directed the government to prepare an inventory of articles inside the Poes Garden residence in the presence of Jayalalithaa’s legal heirs - Deepak Jayaraman and Deepa, nephew and niece of the late AIADMK supremo. The single bench of the Madras HC has passed the interim order on the petitions filed by Deepak and Deepa. Ruling on the petitions which had sought a stay on the inauguration, Justice N Seshasayee said that while the opening ceremony could go ahead, the building should not be open to the public till the court allows. "It is made clear that holding the function will not in any way confer any right to the government, nor deprive the petitioners of their right in the subject matter of the writ petitions," the court noted. Veda Nilayam, Jayalalithaa’s some 50-year old residential property located at the upscale Poes Garden neighbourhood in Chennai, was taken over by the government post her death. It was later converted into a memorial.