The court ruled that the tomb in question does not qualify as an ancient monument under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive master plan for development.

JUDGMENT :

M.SUNDAR, J.

This common judgment will govern captioned two Writ Appeals, two Civil Miscellaneous Petitions thereat, captioned main Writ Petition and the lone Writ Miscellaneous Petition thereat.

2.In captioned 'two Writ Appeals' ('W.As' for the sake of brevity) which are intra court appeals, 'order dated 27.06.2023 made in W.P.No.32163 of 2022 by a Hon'ble Single Judge of this Court' [hereinafter 'impugned order' for the sake of convenience] has been assailed. A Hon'ble Single Judge of this Court, vide the impugned order has allowed the writ petition filed by a member of the Bar (practicing Advocate of this Court) with a prayer to declare that the Tomb of David Yale and Joseph Hynmer in the compound of the Madras Law College (part of Madras High Court campus) is not an ancient monument and with a further prayer for consequential direction to official respondents to relocate the tomb within a time frame. Captioned 'W.A.No.2401 of 2023' shall be referred to as 'said appeal' and 'W.A.No.2570 of 2024' which has been filed assailing the same impugned order (by a person who is not a party to the W.P. before Hon'ble Single Judge) shall be referred to as 'third party appeal', both for the sake of convenience and clarity.

3. Captioned main 'writ petition' ('W.P' for the sake of brevity) has been filed by a designated Senior Advocate / Senior member of the Bar inter-alia seeking a direction to 'Registrar General' ('RG' for the sake of brevity) of 'Madras High Court' ['MHC' for the sake of brevity] and Registrar Administration of MHC to engage experts in conservation, architecture and town planning to frame a comprehensive master plan for future development of the precincts of MHC. When this WP was listed in the admission board on 21.05.2024, a Hon'ble Division Bench of this court made the following order:

'WP.No.13881/2024 & WMP.No.15054/2024

G.R.SWAMINATHAN, J.,

AND

P.B.BALAJI, J.

[Order of the Court was made by G.R.SWAMINATHAN, J.,]

(1) Heard Mr.A.Yogeshwaran, learned counsel for the petitioner ; Mr..P.S.Raman, learned Advocate General appearing for the 1 st respondent and Mr.Ar.L.Sundaresan, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr.B.Vijay, learned Standing Counsel appearing for the 2^nd respondent.

(2) The petitioner is a practising Senior Counsel. He has filed this writ petition for the following relief :-

Directing the respondents to forthwith engage experts in conservation, architecture and town planning to frame a comprehensive master plan for the future development of the precincts of our High Court and refrain from erecting any structures including the proposed 5 storey bulding in the law college campus inside the High Court premises until the preparation of the master plan.

(3) He has also filed a miscellaneous petition for restraining the respondents from conducting the foundation stone laying ceremony for the proposed five storey building in the law college campus inside the High Court premises on 22.05.2024 or any other date pending disposal of the present writ petition.

(4)The learned counsel for the petitioner reiterated all the contentions set out in the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition.

(5)The learned Advocate General produced a copy of the Minutes of the Meeting of the Hon'ble Building Committee, High Court of Madras, held yesterday [20.05.2024] at 3.00 p.m. The same is extracted hereunder:-

''The G.O. for the construction of the 5 storeyed building was issued on 17.11.2023. All the arrangements for the foundation stone laying function on 22.05.2024, including despatch of invitations, have been completed. The representation dated 16.05.2024 from Mr.N.L.Rajah, Senior Advocate, was received by the Registry in the afternoon of 17.05.2024 and the representation dated 19.05.2024 from Mr.T.Mohan, Senior Advocate was received on 19.05.2024.

The Committee considered the representations made by Mr.N.L.Rajah and Mr.T.Mohan, Senior Advocates. The Committee also perused the report dated 18.05.2024 from the Engineer in Chief