UPSC Aspirants' death: Supreme Court initiates suo motu case to look into the safety compliances of coaching centres in Delhi

In the wake of a recent tragedy in Delhi where 3 UPSC aspirants died in a flooded basement at Rau’s IAS coaching centre in Old Rajendra Nagar, Delhi, the Supreme Court (SC) bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, on August 05, 2024 (Today), initiated a suo motu case to look into the safety compliances of coaching centres in Delhi. The bench orally remarked, “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 order was passed while hearing a petition filed by the Coaching Centre Federation (petitioner) against the 2023 order of the Delhi High Court that issued certain measures to regulate the exercise of inspection of all coaching centres. 

Also, the SC bench said, “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 with the safety norms and basic norms for the dignified life of young ones studying there. Such norms must include proper ventilation, safety passages, air, and light.” The bench added in its order, “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 the 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 the Union of India (through the 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 Supreme Court rejected the current petition by the Coaching Federation of India with a cost of Rs. 1 lakh and decided to take suo motu cognizance of the larger issue. The SC directed, “It is a 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 the Coaching Federation, we are imposing 1 Lakh cost to be deposited with the Supreme Court Bar Association and Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association.” It has been observed that the Delhi HC is already hearing a PIL regarding the issue and had ordered the CBI to probe the death of 3 aspirants due to drowning in the Rajendra Nagar’s coaching centre basement.