Do you want to constitute a heritage commission or not? Madras HC asks Tamil Nadu government

The Madras High Court on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction that the Tamil Nadu government has not constituted a heritage commission to preserve century-old buildings and that such buildings have not come under the ambit of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 and the Tamil Nadu Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1966 despite numerous court orders and fixed timelines.

R. Suresh Kumar and S. Sounthar, who have created a special Justice Division to hear temple-related cases, said the delay in setting up the commission despite a judicial order to set it up within four weeks in October 2025 only shows the government’s reluctance. They said such a commission was necessary to approve construction work at many centuries-old temples that were not covered by the 1958 and 1966 legislation.

When the court was informed that a notification calling for applications to the commissioner’s office had been published on the website of the Tamil Nadu Archeology department and five applications had been received so far, the judges wondered how the government could expect prominent people concerned to visit the website regularly to be informed about the notification.

They also tried to read the notification in open court but found that the website of the Tamil Nadu archeology department, www.tnarch.gov.in, was unreachable.

Therefore, the government was instructed to publish a new notification in leading news newspapers within a week and to allow two weeks for applications. The judges, while passing the interim orders on a writ petition filed by temple activist T R Ramesh, said that from now on, the commission should be constituted within four weeks and no construction work should be done in the age-old temples without the commission’s approval.

The Tamil Nadu Heritage Commission Act, 2012 was passed by the State legislature with the aim of protecting heritage structures in the state. However, despite the passage of the law, the commission could not be established for a long time, and the Indian National Foundation for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) submitted a public interest lawsuit petition to the Supreme Court in 2019 to establish the commission as soon as possible.

When the PIL petition was heard by the first Division Bench comprising then Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy in February 2024, the judges were shocked to find that the 2012 Act had not come into force at all.

“Twelve years is not a small period for the Act not to be implemented. If the Act is not implemented, the purpose of promulgating the Act will be defeated,” the judges wrote.

Later, the government enacted the Act but did not constitute the commission, forcing the Division Bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar to fix a time limit of four weeks in October 2025 for setting up the commission.

The 2012 Act stipulates that the heritage commission must be headed by an eminent person nominated by the Government who has concern and commitment to heritage conservation and includes the Minister of Tourism, Secretary of Housing, Secretary of Municipal Administration, Secretary of Rural Development, Secretary of Law, Commissioner of Museums etc. It states that it should consist of a maximum of 16 members, including