Jaya maternity case sent to Chief Justice

When the plea came up for hearing on Friday, Justice S Vaidyanathan, while acceding to the request made by counsels appearing for the newly impleaded respondents-Deepa Jayakumar and Deepak Jayakumar-and the advocate general appearing for the state, said, “Registry is directed to list this matter on February 3 after obtaining necessary orders from the Chief Justice.”

While counsels Samy Chinnapillai and G Dhandapani took notice on behalf of Deepa and Deepak respectively, Senior Counsel V Prakash appearing for the petitioner S Amrutha objected to the impleading petition filed by one PA Joseph, party-in-person, on the ground that he is a third party, apart from stating that the later has not even served a paper on him to rebut the points raised in the petition.

However, Justice Vaidyanathan on adjourning the case directed the parties to exchange the pleadings to enable them to submit their respective objections. He also directed the Commissioner, Greater Chennai Corporation, the state represented by the Chief Secretary and Jayalalithaa’s niece and nephew to file counter on merits as well as maintainability of the plea before January 25 and reply if any by February 2.

Amrutha along with Jayalalithaa’s relatives LS Lalitha and Ranjani Ravindranath had asked the court to permit the family members of Jayalalithaa to cremate her body as per the rites, rituals, customs of Vaishnava Iyengar Brahmin community, with due police protection to the petitioner and her family members at the time of cremation.