Madras High Court on Wednesday asked Tamil Nadu government to reconsider its decision of converting former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden residence into a memorial.
A bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice Abdul Quddhose suggested that the property be converted into the official residence-cum-office of the chief minister of the state.
The court also said that Jayalalithaa's niece and nephew, J Deepa and J Deepak, have been declared as her class-II legal heirs and are entitled to inherit her estate.
"This court would suggest to the State government to consider making the above property as 'Official Residence-cum-Office of the Chief Minister of the State' instead of converting the property as a 'memorial' as desired by the government," the order said.
The court said that the State government shall consider and decide the suggestion of this court to avoid making Poes Garden property a memorial by acquiring the property, as it would incur huge expenses to the public exchequer.
"If the State government is particular that the property should be made as a memorial - instead of making the entire property as 'memorial', the government may consider making use of a portion of the property to set up the memorial and the rest of the property as 'Official Residence-cum-Office of the Chief Minister of the State' so that the property could be put to better use," it said.
It said that there will be a security threat to them and hence, the State government is directed to provide round the clock security to J Deepa and J Deepak, at their own cost.
"For the purpose of payment of security charges, the second and third respondents are directed to liquidate any one of the properties and deposit the same in any of the nationalized banks so that the interest accrued therein could be utilized for paying the security charges regularly, in case they are unable to pay the charges," the order said.
( With inputs from ANI )