The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance in the UPSC aspirants’ deaths case and issued notice to the centre and the Delhi government over the death of three students, who drowned in the flooded basement of an IAS coaching centre in Rajendra Nagar amid heavy rain.
During the hearing, the top court slammed authorities for failing to regulate coaching centres, accusing them of “playing with the lives of children”.
“The coaching centres are playing with the lives of students and have become death chambers,” the court observed, as it imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on the petitioner, the Coaching Center Federation after it challenged the Delhi High Court order for shutting down coaching centres that lacked a fire No Objection Certificate (NOC).
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The court also issued notices to the central government and the Chief Secretary of Delhi, asking whether safety regulations are being implemented in coaching centres.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by the Coaching Federation of India challenging the directions of the Delhi High Court on the proliferation of coaching institutes in the Mukherjee Nagar area of Delhi for their failure to comply with fire and safety norms.
Issuing a notice to the Delhi government and the Centre over the incident, a bench headed by Justice Surya Kant said, “We are not sure as to what effective measure has been taken so far by NCT of Delhi or the Union of India. The recent unfortunate incidents taking away the lives of some of the young ones who joined coaching centres for their career pursuits are eye-openers for one and all.”
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“We, therefore, deem it appropriate to expand the scope of these proceedings as suo motu to issue notice to Union of India 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 judge said.
The three civil service aspirants died in the basement of Rau’s IAS Study Circle in the Old Rajinder Nagar in central Delhi on July 27 due to flooding after heavy rain.
The three aspirants who died in the incident were identified as Tania Soni (25), Shreya Yadav (25) and Navin Delvin (28).
Their deaths – the result of drains failing to clear stagnant rainwater, which was washed back into the basement with sewage – have triggered a furious legal and political row over the condition of infrastructure in the national capital.