Desiya Makkal Katchi President ML Ravi moved the Madras High Court seeking to restrain the Tamil Nadu government from spending public money on building a memorial for former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, PTI reported.

The petition came up for hearing on Saturday before a division bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad. Prasad, however, recused himself from the hearing saying he represented Jayalalithaa as the additional advocate general for Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court before his elevation as a judge.

Justice Manikumar then referred the petition to Chief Justice of the Madras High Court VK Tahilramani to place it before another bench, reported The New Indian Express.

The petitioner also wanted the court to recover any public money spent by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led government on the proposed memorial for the party’s former chief at Marina beach. Ravi claimed that the state had proposed to construct a memorial at a cost of Rs 50.8 crore at the beach which falls under the coastal regulatory zone and is a tourist site.

On May 7, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam laid the foundation stone for the memorial’s construction. Ravi claimed he had made a representation to the chief secretary against the use of taxpayers’ money for the construction of a memorial as Jayalalithaa was convicted by the Supreme Court in a disproportionate assets case.