In the wake of the recent death of three civil services aspirants preparing for the UPSC examination in Delhi, the Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of the issue relating to the safety norms in the coaching centres.

The court issued a notice to the Central and the Delhi governments on the safety norms relating to the coaching centres.

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Taking suo motu cognizance of the incident, a bench of justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, observed that “These places (coaching centres) have become death chambers. You are taking away the lives of young ones coming from different parts of the country.”

The observation from the bench came in the course of the hearing of a petition by the Coaching Federation of India against the recent Delhi H8igh Court order. The court dismissed the plea. The top court rejected the Coaching Federation of India plea against the directions of the Delhi High Court over failure to comply with the safety norms in Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar. The top court also had imposed Rs one lakh cost on the petitioner and directed it to deposit it with the Supreme Court Bar Association and Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association.

The court said that recent unfortunate incidents taking the lives of some of the young aspirants who joined coaching centres for their career pursuits are eye-openers for all.

The bench further suggested that such institutes shall operate through online classes until they fully comply with the fire and safety norms under the Master Plan of Delhi, 2021, read with Unified Building Bye-Laws of Delhi, 2016.

The bench also recommended that norms shall include proper ventilation, safety passages, air and light.

The top court asked the Central government – the Ministry of Urban Affairs and the Delhi Government, 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.

Three students had drowned in the basement of a building housing a coaching centre in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar that was flooded following heavy rains in the national capital last week.