Chennai: Treating a newspaper report on the non-formation of a 17-member heritage commission despite enacting a law three years ago, as a suo motu writ petition, the Madras high court ordered notice to the authorities to file their response within three weeks. A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.M. Sundresh suo motu took up a petition based on a report published in an English daily dated January 4, 2015.
Directing senior Central government standing counsel K. Ravindranath for the director, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and superintending archaeologist and government pleader S.T.S. Moorthy for the state chief secretary and secretary, tourism, culture and religious endowment department, to file affidavits within three weeks, the bench posted the matter to February 10. The petition sought a direction to the authorities to take speedy steps to constitute the 17-member heritage commission and set up the Mamallapuram world heritage area management authority to safeguard archaeological monuments in the state.
The newspaper report stated that the Tamil Nadu Heritage Commission Act was passed in 2012. But rules were yet to be framed and the 17-member heritage commission was still not in place. Another initiative of the government in 2012, the Mamallapuram world heritage area management authority, also has not been set up. The objective was to effectively manage the group of Mamallapuram monuments dating back to the 7th and 8th century AD.
