UPSC Aspirants' Death: Supreme Court initiates suo motu case on 'death chamber' institutes

In view of the death of three UPSC aspirants in a flooded IAS coaching centre basement in Delhi, the Supreme Court on Monday initiated a suo motu case to look into the safety norms being adhered to by buildings and coaching institutes in the national capital. .A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan said that such coaching institutes are operating in violation of building norms and regulations and have become death chambers. "We are issuing suo motu notice to NCT of Delhi and Union of India to come out with guidelines of the safety norms that have been taken. These places have become death chambers. You are taking away the lives of young ones coming from different parts of the country and their lives are being taken away," the Court orally remarked.Such institutes must be made to operate via online classes until there is full compliance with the safety norms under the Master Plan of Delhi, 2021 read with Unified Building Bye Laws of Delhi, 2016, the Court suggested."All coaching institutes and centres of Delhi are required to comply with the fire and safety norms under the Master Plan of Delhi, 2021 read with Unified Building Bye Laws of Delhi, 2016. Coaching institutes can operate online unless there is full compliance of the safety norms and basic norms for dignified life of young ones studying there. Such norms must include proper ventilation, safety passages, air and light," the Court said.The Court made it clear that no coaching or tuition centre, not only in Delhi, but at least even in NCR, should be allowed to operate unless there is meticulous compliance of fire safety norms and other safety measures for the students, besides other basic amenities for a dignified human life..Hence, it proceeded to issue notice to the Central government and the Delhi government to come out with details on what safety norms have been prescribed so far and how they have ensured compliance with the same."We are not sure as to what effective steps in this regard have been taken so far by the NCT of Delhi or the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. The recent unfortunate incidents taking away lives of some young aspirants, who joined the coaching centres for their carrier pursuits, are eye opener for one and all. We, therefore, deem it appropriate to expand the scope of these proceedings, suo motu, and issue notice to (i) Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Union of India and (ii) NCT of Delhi through the Chief Secretary, to show cause as to what safety norms have been prescribed so far and, if so, what is the effective mechanism introduced to ensure their compliance," the Court said in its order..The Court was hearing an appeal filed by Coaching Federation of India challenging the directions of Delhi High Court on proliferation of coaching institutes in Mukherjee Nagar area of Delhi for their failure to comply with fire and safety norms.The Court rejected the appeal and also imposed costs of ₹1 lakh on the Coaching Federation of India."It is very inappropriate time when this has come up....This is a state of affairs where a lot of young ones coming from places across the country to Delhi have lost their lives. On this plea by Coaching Federation, we are of the view that it is totally frivolous and is liable to be dismissed with exemplary cost, which is quantified as Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lakh). The cost amount of Rs.50,000/- (Rupees Fifty Thousand) shall be deposited with the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association and the balance amount of Rs.50,000/- (Rupees Fifty Thousand) shall be deposited with the Supreme Court Bar Employees Welfare Association within three weeks," the Court directed..Three civil services aspirants lost their lives in the basement of a building in Rajendra Nagar which housed a branch of Rau's IAS Study Circle, a prominent coaching institute for civil service aspirants.The institute's library in the basement was flooded following heavy rains and three of them could not make it out of the basement on time.The three aspirants who died in the incident were identified as Tania Soni (25), Shreya Yadav (25) and Navin Delvin (28).The Delhi High Court is already hearing a public interest litigation about the same and had also ordered a CBI probe into the incident besides setting up a committee to examine the financial and administrative set up of Delhi and submit a report..Advocates NP Singh, Kedar Nath Tripathy, Raghunath Pathak, Sachin Yadav and Gyanadutta Chouhan, appeared for the Federation..[Read Order]