Hafeez Contractor is not the only one. Architects’ council says it receives at least 15 complaints of professional misconduct every year, and is forced to suspend several members.
The Council of Architecture (COA) may have recently suspended the licence of well-known architect Hafeez Contractor for professional misconduct, but he is hardly the only one. Since 1989, when regulations regarding professional duties were framed, the council, an autonomous body set up by the Centre, has suspended 200 architects. During the suspension period — which runs from anywhere between six months and two years — the architects have to surrender the certificate of registration issued to them by the council, and are not permitted to undertake any assignment.
“It is a major concern for us,” Vinod Kumar, registrar-secretary of the council, told DNA. “With growing awareness, we receive an average of 15 complaints every year against architects for various acts of omission of duty, like not completing a project as per contract or accepting a contract for which another architect has been selected.”
There are 25 rules an architect has to follow as part of his professional duty. They range from informing clients of the conditions of engagement and scale of charges, competing fairly with other architects, not accepting a commission on a project he knows another architect has been selected, recognising the professional contribution of his employees and, most importantly, not advertising his professional services or allowing his name to be used in an advertisement. (The charges against Contractor pertain to this last clause)
“While a few complaints are filed for reasons of obvious professional rivalry, most are dispensed with by issuing warnings, reprimands and, in rare cases, suspending the architect’s licence for a few months. The council wants to set high standards among professionals, and a quasi-judicial body has been set up just to tackle such cases,” Kumar added. In the last 20 years, the council has suspended six architects (one for a duration of two years), besides Contractor, who has been suspended for one year.
This is not the first time that Contractor has been rapped by the council for flouting rules. “We had reprimanded Contractor earlier, after he appeared in an advertisement promoting a foreign airlines,” Kumar said. He has, allegedly, also done an ad for a sanitary ware company.
Contractor, who plans to challenge the council’s decision in High Court, has vehemently denied the allegations. He told DNA he is being censured because he is a well-known name. “Companies are using my name or photographs in advertisements even though I am not associated with their projects or products. I have not been paid for these, nor have I asked to be featured in the ads, like the one for which I have been penalised. Even the airlines issue is years old. How can I stop people from using my name? The council has taken action against me without hearing my defence.”
Referring to the recent row, Contractor said that on the day of the hearing at Alleppey in Kerala earlier this year, he had sent a representative, but the council did not meet him. “I could not go myself as there was an income tax raid at my residence, and the IT officers did not permit me to make phone calls until late in the evening. Even the IT department wrote to the council informing them about my inability to be present. Now only the courts can decide the matter,” Contractor added.
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