Aditi Gupta

Does an architect, as author of an artistic work in the form of a building covered by copyright, have a right to restrain the owner of the land to demolish the building and construct another in its place? The Delhi High Court of India recently answered this firmly in the negative in the case of Raj Rewal v. Union Of India and Ors. The Delhi Court’s judgment gave preference to requirements of urban planning over the moral rights of an architect. It held that the owner of the building has full power to dispose of or destroy it. The judgment is significant in its contribution to the jurisprudence on the scope and limitations of “moral rights” in Indian Copyright Law.