No ancient status tag for Vallalar Peruveli land: TN government

CHENNAI: The litigation against the construction of Vallalar International Centre at Vadalur had some moments of heated debate at the Madras High Court as the judges drew parallels to previous cases involving the protection of places having archaeological importance, while the State’s counsel argued the proposed site for the Centre doesn’t fall under the ancient category.

The court said that archaeological importance had affected the infrastructural development of the High Court itself in the past. The court was hearing the petition seeking to restrain the State from constructing the centre at Peruveli land, a litigant claiming it as a heritage site.

A division bench of Justice R Suresh Kumar and Justice S Sounthar heard a batch of petitions seeking to direct the State not to advance the construction. The bench referred to international incidents in which objections were raised for the decision to relocate the tomb of David Yale and Joseph Hymners, the son and friend of Elihu Yale, the then Governor of East India Company, situated within the compound of the Dr Ambedkar law college in the campus of the High Court due to its heritage importance. The reason stated for the objection was that the tomb is more than 300 years old.

The Advocate General PS Raman submitted that an expert committee constituted as per the Court’s order concluded that the Peruveli land is not an ancient site. He also submitted that the State is not disturbing any building of Sathya Gnana Sabai, but only constructing the International Centre on an open space, hence it will not affect the ancient site.

The litigant submitted that Peruveli, a vacant space at the Sathya Gnana Sabai, is itself against the wishes of Vallalar as his philosophy stands for simplicity. Several hymns of Vallalar emphasise that the Peruveli should be left open for the devotees to experience the divine of Jothi Dharsanam, said the counsel. The litigant sought the Court to appoint an independent expert, a Tamil scholar, to examine the hymns of Vallalar regarding the Peruveli land and file a report.

However, the bench refused to entertain the submission. Judges wondered how the Court could arrive at a decision merely by interpreting the hymns, as individuals can read them according to their perspective.

Since the arguments were not concluded the bench posted the matter to August 22 for further submissions.