DMK leader Karunanidhi can be buried at Marina beach, says Madras high court

The DMK moved the court late Tuesday hours after the state government announced its inability to allot burial space for party leader M Karunanidhi on the Marina beach citing legal hurdles.
The Madras high court on Wednesday allowed DMK leader M Karunanidhi to be buried at Chennai’s Marina beach.
“All we need is 6X6 foot land for a tall leader, nothing else,” said DMK in Madras high court while concluding its arguments for burying DMK leader M Karunanidhi at Chennai’s Marina Beach, the resting place of many Dravidian political icons.
Madras high court on Wednesday resumed hearing on a DMK petition to allow M Karunanidhi to be buried at Chennai’s Marina Beach even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Chennai to pay his last respects to Kalaignar
In court, the ruling AIADMK said the burial place decision was a policy issue and court cannot intervene. “Only chief ministers who died in office were allotted space at the Marina Beach,” the government said
The DMK said no law says only chief ministers are eligible for burial at Marina beach. “’You (the state government) have announced state mourning, why not give land for burial? There’s no prohibition under central government protocol to allot land at Marina beach for ex-chief ministers,” the DMK said.
The acting chief justice then asked to see permission granted for Jayalalithaa’s memorial.
The DMK’s lawyer told the court, “Anna, who is the founder of DMK, used to say my life and soul is Karunanidhi. Burying Karunanidhi next to Gandhi Mandapam cannot be termed as a decent burial.”
The Tamil Nadu government in its counter affidavit said that DMK chief Karunanidhi as CM didn’t allot land for former CM Janaki Ramachandran after understanding the protocol manual . Janaki was the wife of AIADMK leader MG Ramachandran
Marina Beach is the resting place of the icons of Dravidian politics. CN Annadurai, founder of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is buried there, so is MG Ramachandran, who broke off to form AIADMK, and his political successor J Jayalalithaa.
The DMK moved the court late Tuesday, hours after the state government announced its inability to allot burial space on the Marina beach citing legal hurdles.
In a special late night hearing before the first bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice S S Sundar, the counsel for DMK questioned the government’s legal ground for not allotting space for burying Karunanidhi at the Marina beach. The high court met at Ramesh’s official residence at 10.30pm and heard arguments by Tamil Nadu’s lawyer CS Vaidyanathan and DMK lawyer P Wilson.
The DMK argued that there was no legal impediment to allotting space within the memorial of former Chief Minister CN Annadurai on the beachfront.
Senior counsel for the state government said they would get instructions and file a counter in the morning.
In his observations, the acting chief justice told the government counsel that “every minute of delay” may cause problems to the government and asked if it was prepared to handle it.
He also said Karunandihi was among the tallest leaders of the country and asked what was the problem in allotting a burial site for him at the Marina.
Advocate G Doraisamy (Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam) and PMK advocate K Balu submitted before the bench that they were withdrawing their petitions against construction of a memorial for Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa at the Marina beach.
This will remove legal hurdles for the government allowing a site for Karunanidhi, they told reporters later.
Earlier, DMK working president M K Stalin, recalling the long public life of Karunanidhi, had written to Chief Minister K Palaniswami seeking space inside the mausoleum complex of the departed leader’s mentor C N Annadurai at the Marina.
The state government had declined DMK’s request by citing rules of the Coastal Regulation Zone Act, saying two acres land would be allotted for Karunanidhi’s burial near Gandhi Mandapam on Sardar Patel Road.
The DMK chief passed away at Kauvery hospital on Tuesday evening after days of hospitalisation.