Architect has no right under Section 57 Copyright Act to object to demolition of his work, Delhi HC

The Delhi high court has held that an architect of a building/structure has no right under Section 57 of the Copyright Act to object to the demolition of his/ her work or to claim any damages for such demolition..“The special rights of the author of an architectural work cannot be interpreted as being a restriction on the right to property of the owner of the land and building and entitling the author to restrain the owner of the land and building in which the architectural work has been expressed, from better utilizing his land or building by removing the existing building and constructing new building on the land.”, the Court has held..The judgment was passed by a Single Judge Bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw in a suit by the architect of the iconic Hall of Nations and the Nehru Pavilion at New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan, Raj Rewal..Rewal had moved the Court seeking an injunction and compensation from the Central Government and Indian Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO) for demolishing the two structures..Invoking Section 57 of the Copyright Act, Rewal had sought a recreation of the architecture in the Hall of Nations and Nehru Pavilion at the same location or at any other location in Delhi which is equally prominent as the earlier location of the said buildings, under his direct supervision..Rewal argued that the demolition of his work was prejudicial to his honour and reputation..ITPO argued that Section 57 enabled an architect to either restrain such modification or distortion of the work which takes away its artistic elements. However, when the work is totally removed and is not in public view, the question of the same affecting the rights of the author would not arise..After the hearing, the Court remarked that it fully understood the love that an architect has for his creation..“..I must state that I fully appreciate the feelings of the plaintiff in instituting this suit..The architect whose drawings transform into brick, mortar, concrete or other relatively new substances used in construction industry, are thus not mere creators of drawings and designs but creators of structures/buildings on land….The practitioners of such professions as of an architect or artist, thus give birth to something tangible and being in love with that is fully understandable. Their creation is like a child and falling in love with the child is an emotion which all can understand.”.It thus observed that the Central Government and ITPO did owe a duty to Rewal as far as informing him in advance about the demolition of the buildings..“..Union of India and ITPO have erred in not so caring for the sentiment of and respecting the plaintiff and his work..”, it said..However, the Court restrained itself from grating any legal right against the demolition of one’s work by recording that it applies the law to facts, and not feelings..The Court stated that words distortion, mutilation and modification in Section 57(1)(b) of the Copyright Act needed to be understood as “making the work look, appear, be seen, as something different from what the author had created”, thus affecting the honour and reputation of the Architect..However, failure to display the work is not an infringement of rights conferred by Section 57. What cannot be viewed, seen, heard or felt, cannot be imperfect and cannot affect the honour or reputation of the author, it said..“Section 57 caters to the need of the creator for protection of his honour and reputation. Deforming his work is to present him to the public as the creator of a work not his own, and thus make him subject to criticism for work he has not done. The destruction of his work does not have this result.”.It thus stated that the Section has to be necessarily interpreted as entitling the author/owner of a copyright to only restrain the owner/occupier of the building from dealing with the work of architecture in the building to make the building look otherwise than as designed by the author/architect..The Court iterated that rights conferred on the owner/author of copyright conferred by the Copyright Act have to be necessarily read harmoniously with rights of others in whom the property/medium in which the right of the author or owner of the copyright is expressed..Further discussing the issues of town planning, dynamic building bye-laws, environmental laws etc, the Court observed that it not necessary that the building or the structure constructed would always be a true reflection of the drawings or the designs authored by the architect..“In my view, such entitlement of the owner of the land to raise additional construction cannot be objected to by the architect of the original building on the grounds of such additions, distortion, mutilation, or modification of his work. The only relief which perhaps the architect can have in such cases under Section 57 of the Act is to restrain the owner from claiming the modified work also to be of the architect who had designed the building, as constructed in the original form.”, it added..It also observed that to hold that demolition is prohibited by Section 57(1)(b) of the Act, would render Section 52(1)(x) otiose..Thus concluding that an owner of the building has full power to dispose of or destroy it, the court said,.“The requirements of urban planning outweigh the moral rights of an architect..The architect cannot demand the intangibility of work because it would violate the right of ownership and the principles of freedom of commerce. Similarly, the functionality of the building has to necessarily outweigh the interest of the architect on the preservation of integrity. Thus, the owner of the building has full power to dispose it of and to destroy it..Consequently, the suit was dismissed by the Court..Rewal was represented by Senior Advocate CM Lall with Advocates Vedanta Varma, Nancy Roy, Rupin Bahl and Akhil Kumar Gola..The Respondents were represented by Senior Advocate Sanjay Jain with Advocates Saket Sikri, Vikalp Mudgal, Yuvraj, Sneh Suman and Neil Mason..[Read Judgment].Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.