Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol. XXIX No. 19, January 15-31, 2020
It was in 2010 that the High Court of Madras in a landmark judgement, listed around 400 heritage buildings of Madras, which it deemed worthy of protection. Since then, much time has been wasted by the Government in setting up toothless committees that have done little or nothing. In the meanwhile, a subsequent judgement watered down the original one by interpreting that only the facades of heritage buildings need be protected. But even that has since been given the go by in implementation, with many listed structures in the 2010 judgement vanishing. Beginning with this fortnight, our Heritage Watch column will survey what survives and in what condition, with the judgement of 2010 as its basis.
Our first story concerns the Gordon Woodroffe building, listed in page 84 of the Justice E. Padmanabhan committee report, which was what the 2010 judgement used.