New Delhi
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a petition by one Amrutha – claiming to be the biological daughter of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. jayalalithaa – seeking the exhuming of her mortal remains so that DNA of late leader could be conducted to establish her paternity.
The bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta, however, permitted her to move the Madras High court with her prayer.
The petition Amrutha has said that her foster parents – sister and brother-in-law of the late leader – had adopted in 1982.
She said that she was biological daughter of late leader was told to her by her adopted father before his death in March this year.
She also urged the court that the mortal remains of her biological mother be exhumed so that family could perform her last rights in a tradtional ways.
In a writ petition filed before the Supreme Court, Amrutha has sought a DNA test to establish her maternity by exhuming Jayalalithaa’s remains. She has also sought the apex court’s directions to permit Jayalalithaa’s family to cremate her body as per the rites, rituals and customs of Vaishnava Iyengars.
In her petition, Amrutha says she was brought up as the daughter of Jayalalithaa’s late sister Shylaja and that it was only after the former CM’s demise that she came to know through her aunts – LS Lalitha and Ranjani Ravindranath – that she is Jayalalithaa’s biological daughter. Lalitha and Ranjani are related to Jayalalithaa, according to Amrutha.
According to records, Jayalalithaa has only one sibling, a brother named Jayakumar. Shylaja’s claim that she was a sister had been contested by other members of the family.
“It was upon the death of Late Ms. J. Jayalalitha that Amrutha came to know through the close family relatives who are LS Lalitha and Ranjani Ravindranath that she is in fact the biological daughter of Late Ms. J. Jayalalitha and thus, to ascertain the same, the Petitioners herein are seeking the remedy under Article 32 of the Constitution of India for a declaration of the same through an identifiable method to know the maternity i.e., through deoxyribonucleic acid test (hereinafter referred to as DNA Test) which is to be undertaken by any Institute of National repute to ascertain and establish the maternity of the Petitioner No.1,” states the petition.