Woman claims wrongful attachment of 2.15 acres of her land in Jayalalithaa’s disproportionate assets case

A 68-year-old woman from Wallajahbad in Kancheepuram district has approached the Madras High Court, claiming that 2.15 acres of her land in Uthukadu village had been wrongly attached in connection with a disproportionate assets case involving former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy on Tuesday (July 8, 2025) ordered notice to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) and directed a government counsel to make sure a counter affidavit was filed to the writ petition by July 28, after verifying the records and ascertaining the veracity of the claim.

In her affidavit, the petitioner J. Kamasala said, she had purchased 33 cents of land in survey number 632/1, 1.51 acres in survey number 632/2, and 31 cents in survey number 640/6 by virtue of a sale deed executed by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation (TIIC) Limited on August 3, 2006.

The petitioner also stated the lands originally belonged to a woman named R. Lakshmi, who had mortgaged them with TIIC but could not discharge the loan in full. Hence, the TIIC had taken possession of the properties in 2002 and sold them by way of a public auction to the petitioner in 2006.

Subsequently, when a private company named Madow Agro Farms Private Limited began interfering with a portion of the property, the petitioner’s son J. Sathish Kumar filed a civil suit in 2017 for the declaration of title, and obtained a favourable decree from a district court in 2018.

However, recently, when she applied for an Encumbrance Certificate for her properties, the petitioner got to know that the entire extent of 2.15 acres of her land had been included in a long list of immovable properties that had been attached in connection with Jayalalithaa’s disproportionate assets case.

She learnt that a Government Order had been issued with respect to the attachment and subsequently, the Kancheepuram Collector had sent a communication to the Sub Registrar’s office on February 27, 2021 instructing the latter to not entertain any documents for the alienation of those properties.

The petitioner informed the court of having sent representations to the DVAC, Kancheepuram Collector, as well as TIIC on April 21, 2025, clarifying that her properties had nothing to do with the disproportionate assets case. However, there was no response and hence, the present writ petition was filed.