HC asks Culture Ministry and ASI to transfer estampages of Tamil inscriptions from Mysore to Chennai

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Union Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to transfer all the estampages of Tamil inscriptions from the Epigraphy Branch in Mysore to the one in Chennai within six months.

A division bench comprising Justices N Kirubakaran and M Duraiswamy also told the ASI to name the Chennai Branch as ‘Epigraphy Branch-Tamil’ similar to how the Epigraphy branches for Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic languages were called. The State government should also provide all infrastructural facilities for the Chennai Branch within six months, the judges directed.

Further directions were issued to the ASI to appoint a required number of epigraphists and other officials according to the number of inscriptions in each language.

The bench gave the directions in a batch of Public Interest Litigations (PIL) which sought digitisation and transfer of Tamil inscriptions present in the Mysore Epigraphy centre to the one in Tamil Nadu.