30-04-2025
HC nod to shift Yale tomb to make way for court registry
Chennai: Joseph Yale's tomb near the old law college building on the Madras high court campus is to be removed as a division bench has upheld a single judge's 2023 order allowing its relocation. A five-storey building for the court registry has been planned there.
Holding that the tomb of David Yale and Joseph Hynmer did not qualify as an ancient monument under the law, the bench of Justice M Sundar and Justice N Sathish Kumar dismissed two writ appeals -- one by the
Archaeological Survey of India
(ASI) and the other by Senior Advocate T Mohan.
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In its judgment on Wednesday, the court said the notification issued in 1921 under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904, erroneously referred to the tomb as that of Elihu Yale. Actually, the tomb contains the remains of Yale's three-year-old son Jacca David Yale and his friend Joseph Hynmer, who had no known contribution to India's heritage.
The court said Yale's contribution to Connecticut College, later Yale University, held no relevance to India. Since Yale University started its Tamil Studies department only in 2004, the tomb built between 1684 and 1688 had no significance, and its indirect Tamil link was weak and irrelevant. The court noted Yale left Madras in 1699 and was buried in England. He worked for the East India Company in spice and gold trade, with only a tenuous link to the law college site.
The Bench expressed confidence that authorities would follow the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act and preserve the campus's aesthetics. It added that while Article 49 mandates monument protection, such protection must rest on objective criteria.
