Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam patriarch M Karunanidhi and his son M K Stalin on Friday issued a legal notice to All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Jayalalithaa for her remarks that Stalin had told his father that she would not be alive during the next Assembly polls.

"You have wilfully and maliciously tried to malign my clients' reputation and used the incident of some intruder entering your house to divert the attention of the public from the good work and public service done by my clients," their advocate R S Bharathi said in the notice.

The advocate demanded that Jayalalithaa "publicly retract the offensive statement regarding the alleged conversation between my clients within 48 hours of the receipt of the notice failing which appropriate civil and criminal action will be initiated for defamation against you."