Jayalalithaa's legal heir Deepa moves Madras high court to quash acquisition of Veda Nilayam by Tamil Nadu govt

CHENNAI: Former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s legal heir J Deepa has approached the Madras high court challenging the acquisition of Veda Nilayam – her aunt’s Poes Garden residence in Chennai – by the state government to convert it into a memorial.
The primary grounds of her challenge were that the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 does not empower the state government to acquire a private land to convert it into a memorial and that the acquisition has been done even without conducting and publishing social impact assessment which is mandatory under the Act.
This apart, the land acquisition officer who has passed the acquisition order on July 22 is not a competent authority under the Act, as it empowers only the district collector to pass such orders, Deepa said.
She further contended that the Land Acquisition Act does not provide for acquisition of movable properties in the residence like gold, silver, jewellery and other precious items.
Therefore, Deepa wanted the court to direct the authorities to hand over the movable properties acquired from Veda Nilayam to her and grant an interim stay against the operation of the acquisition order pending disposal of the petition.
The plea filed in the high court registry is likely to be taken up for hearing in the first week of August.