An architect cannot restrain the owner of a building he has designed from demolishing it, the Delhi High Court ruled on Tuesday, while dismissing a plea for recreating the demolished Hall of Nations and the Nehru Pavilion at a separate location here.
The ruling by the court came while dismissing a suit filed by the architect of the buildings, which were located at Pragati Maidan here and were demolished to re-develop the area, seeking directions to the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) to recreate them as compensation.
Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, in his verdict, said, "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 utilising his land or building by removing the existing building and constructing a new building on the land."
The judge, in conclusion, said, "I thus do not find any right in the plaintiff (Raj Rewal) as architect of the building/structure, to, under the Copyright Act, object to demolition of the work or to claim any damages for such demolition."