PIL in Hyderabad HC seeking takeover of Jayalalithaa's assets

Hyderabad: A public interest litigation seeking the takeover of the assets of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has been filed with the High Court.
Gareeb Guide,  a voluntary organisation, wants the assets taken over as public property as per the Succession Act.

The NGO asked the court to declare the action of the Telangana state government in not moving on the matter illegal. The organisation represented by its president G. Bhargavi moved the plea stating that if a person had not nominated a heir to own the property, in accordance with the provisions of Hindu Succession Act 1956, such property should devolve on the government.

It said the government should take over the property subject to all the obligations and liabilities to which a heir would have been liable. The petitioner told the court that Jayalalithaa in an affidavit filed along with her nomination papers for the May’ 2016 Assembly elections declared movable and immovable properties worth over Rs 113.73 crore.

According to the affidavit, Jayalalithaa had 14 acres of agriculture land in Medchal village of Malkajgiri district and a commercial complex in Srinagar Colony in Hyderabad and that she had no spouse and no dependents.

The petitioner told the court that as per available information, Jayalalithaa had never married. Her parents were no more and her brother Jayakumar had died in an accident in 1995 and there was no “Will” left by her specifying who gets what assets. The petitioner alleged that Ms Sasikala Natarajan, a confidante of Jayala-lithaa, was trying to grab the properties.