Coaching centres have become “death chambers,” said the Supreme Court on Monday, taking suo motu cognisance of the deaths of three civil services aspirants, who were in their early 20s. They died after drowning in the flooded basement of Rau’s Study Circle building in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar last month.
The court also slammed the authorities for failing to regulate coaching centres and accused them of “playing with the lives of children”.
A notice has also been issued by the court to the Centre and Delhi government in the matter.
“These places (coaching centres) have become death chambers. Coaching institutes can operate online unless there is full compliance of the safety norms and basic norms for a dignified life. Coaching centres are playing with the lives of aspirants who come from different parts of the country,” the bench said.
“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 (coaching centres) have become death chambers. Coaching centres are playing with the lives of aspirants who come from different parts of the country,” a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan said.
Coaching institutes can operate online unless…
The apex court further suggested that the coaching 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.
“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.
During the hearing, the SC also slammed the authorities for failing to regulate coaching centres. It demanded to know what rules, if any, had been laid down for coaching centres.
“We are not sure as to what effective has been taken so far by NCT of Delhi or Union of India. The recent unfortunate incidents taking away lives of some of the young ones who joined coaching centres for their career pursuits are eye openers for one and all. We, therefore, deem it appropriate to expand the scope of these proceedings as suo Motu to issue notice to Union of India (through Ministry of Urban Affairs) and NCT of Delhi to show cause as to what safety norms have been prescribed so far and if so what is the effective mechanism introduced for their compliance,” the court said in its order.
Coaching Federation of India fined Rs 1 lakh
The Supreme Court has imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the Coaching Federation of India who had filed an appeal challenging the Delhi High Court’s order on proliferation of coaching institutes in Mukherjee Nagar area of Delhi for their failure to comply with fire and safety norms.
“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 imposing Rs 1 Lakh cost to be deposited with the Supreme Court Bar Association and Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association,” the court directed.
The Delhi High Court has also transferred the probe into the deaths of three students at Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar from the Delhi police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) “to ensure the public has no doubt over the investigation”.
So far, seven people have been arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with the death of three UPSC aspirants – Shreya Yadav (25) of Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni (25) from Telangana and Nevin Delvin (24) from Kerala.
The deaths of these students were allegedly due to the drains in the area failing to clear stagnant rainwater that washed back into the basement with sewage.
With inputs from agencies
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