Delhi Coaching Centre Incident: PIL in HC Seeks High-Level Committee Probe

A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Delhi High Court, seeking the formation of a high-level committee to investigate the Rajendra Nagar incident in which three people lost their lives.

The plea also seeks directions for an investigation into the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) officers who allegedly failed to act on a complaint received on June 26, 2024.

The petitioner, Kutumb, an NGO throught its trustee Jitender Singh and advocate Rudhra Vikram Singh, also seeks the constitution of district-level committees in each district of Delhi to investigate and address illegal commercial construction

As per the plea, these prayers collectively aim to address systemic issues in regulatory enforcement and ensure accountability in cases of illegal construction and non-compliance by educational institutions. The plea further states that due to the widespread corruption within the respondents’ departments, many people have lost their lives over the years, and Delhi has faced numerous terrible and frightening incidents in recent years.

In a recent incident at a coaching institute in Rajendra Nagar, New Delhi, three young UPSC aspirants lost their lives, and many others are struggling between life and death due to the respondents’ negligence. Unfortunately, this was not the first incident in the national capital; many similar unfortunate events have occurred in Delhi in the past few years. The respondents have never taken preventive measures to avoid such incidents, the plea asserts.

On July 28, a PIL was moved for directions to the MCD to implement immediate measures to prevent similar incidents in the future. The court’s intervention aims to address and mitigate issues related to waterlogging and improve safety conditions.

The plea mentions that last year, a devastating fire engulfed a coaching institute in northwest Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar, compelling panic-stricken students to leap out of windows in a desperate bid to escape the inferno. Numerous students also resorted to rappelling down the building using ropes as a last-ditch effort to save their lives.

In May, the Delhi High Court ordered the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Delhi Development Authority to immediately shut down any coaching centre found to be operating in contravention of the prescribed fire safety norms. This pronouncement came in the wake of several petitions concerning the functioning of coaching centres in the area, including a case the high court had initiated on its own after taking note of a fire at one such institution in June 2023.

The high court previously emphasised that the safety of students is an absolute necessity and that all coaching centres must either adhere to the statutory requirements mandated by the Delhi Master Plan 2021 and other relevant regulations or face imminent closure, the plea notes.

Three students died after the basement of the building housing a coaching centre in Delhi’s Old Rajendra Nagar was flooded following rains. The Delhi Police arrested the owner and coordinator of the coaching centre in connection with the incident and booked them for culpable homicide among other charges.

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