Delhi Coaching Centre Fire: High Court Takes Suo Motu Cognizance, Seeks Fire Audit Report Of All Such Institutes
The Delhi High Court on Friday took suo motu cognisance of the fire that broke out in a coaching centre in?Mukherjee Nagar area of the national capital on Thursday and asked the authorities to examine the safety status of such institutes.
Issuing notice in the matter, the bench asked the Delhi Fire Service Department to examine the fire safety certificate of all coaching centres in the city and asked it, as well as the Delhi Police, to state its stand.
Fire safety auditof all such buildings?
"Delhi fire service is required to do a fire safety audit in such building to ensure that there are adequate fire safety measures as hundreds of students visit these?institutes for specialised coaching," the vacation bench comprising justices Jasmeet Singh and Vikas Mahajan said.
Similarly, it also asked the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to look into the sanctioned building plans of such establishments.
"Issue notice.. counsel for Delhi Police and Delhi Fire Services will place their respective stands within two weeks from today," the court said.
What Delhi government said
Delhi government standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi said the safety of students cannot be compromised.
The court directed that the matter be listed before a bench headed by the high court chief justice on July 3 for further directions.
The HC's suo motu action was in response to a fire incident at a coaching centre in Mukherjee Nagar, in which some 61 students suffered minor injuries while climbing down the building using ropes.
Students use ropes to get out
A preliminary inquiry suggested that the fire started from an electricity metre board in the five-storey building, officials said.
According to the police, around 250 students were attending classes at the building -- Bhandari House -- at the time of the incident.
The panic-stricken students were seen climbing down from the top floor of the building with the help of ropes as smoke billowed out of the windows.
What?the coaching centre said
CEO of Sanskriti Coaching Centre, Shivesh Mishra, however, claimed that the fire did not break out inside the coaching centre.
"It is being reported that there was a blast in the metre box on the ground floor, and the smoke went up from below. During the incident, the students got scared. All of them have been rescued. Some students attempted to escape with the help of wires. Two of them have been seriously injured," Mishra said.
Following the incident, on Thursday, scores of students from various coaching centres staged a protest and blocked the road, raising slogans and holding posters demanding justice.
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