What challenges do architects in India face?

The Supreme Court on March 17, held that the Architects Act, 1972, does not prohibit individuals not registered under the Act to undertake the practice of architecture and other cognate activities. The Court has now held that while Section 37 does not bar a person not registered under the Act from carrying out activities related to the profession, it prohibits an unregistered person from using the title of architect. In other words, a person carrying out architectural activities need not be registered with the Council of Architecture (the regulatory body for architects in India). “If the legislature were to impose an absolute prohibition against unregistered individuals from practicing architecture, there would be considerable confusion as to what activities formed the practice of architecture and what did not. It may have resulted in a host of other legitimate professionals being barred from engaging in the design, supervision and construction of buildings merely because they were not registered under the Architects Act,” the Court said. Given this new directive, will education institutions and current students be discouraged, and more importantly, become obsolete? According to the Council of Architecture (CoA), architects can be held responsible for professional misconduct when it comes to designing the structure, however, often when buildings collapse, architects too face legal action. The architect’s liability shall be limited to a maximum period of three years after the building is handed over to or occupied by the owner, whichever is earlier. In the case of unqualified architects undertaking designing and architectural tasks, will they be liable under the same guidelines? According to a report of the Expert Committee in Town Planning and Architecture to Energise Architecture and Town Planning Education (2011) set up by Ministry of Human Resource Development, India would need 300,000 town and country planners by 2031 while we have hardly 5,000 town planners at present. India has around 8,000 cities and towns, 600 districts, besides over 400,000 villages, hence, even if one qualified town planner is to be deployed in these towns, we do not have the sufficient number of town planners. In addition, to meet this shortage, the job is currently being done by the non-qualified planners, resulting in haphazard planning. Can this be an avenue for solely qualified architects? Can we seek architects to have some additional courses as part of their curriculum to qualify as town planners? To get you answers to all this and more, Construction World is announcing a webinar on ‘The Architect Challenge’. Details: Date: Tuesday, April 7 Time: 10:50 am - 11:45 am Topic: The Architect Challenge Presenter: Pratap Padode, Editor-in-Chief, Construction World and President, FIRST Construction Council. Guest panellists: Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Hiranandani Group Subodh Dixit, Executive Director-Engineering and Construction, Shapoorji and Pallonji and Company Rajiv Mishra, Principal, JJ School of Architecture Sanjay Puri, Principal Architect, Sanjay Puri Architects Mahesh Mudda, Managing Director & CEO, NCCCL Habeeb Khan, President, Council of ArchitectureClick here to register for the Free Webinar Also view our complete webinar calendar and previous webinars here